I recently started a warrior on the PvE server and upon reaching level 5 I went to get mining and blacksmithing for professions. I then proceeded to level while watching for nodes. By level 8 I had found one mode in Elwyn Forest that I could mine and 4 near Jasperlode mine that vanish as soon as I start to get close. On the off chance that there is someone specifically going for the nodes, I decided to go to IF and try in that area. I went around Kharanos and started a dedicated search. I took back paths and front and managed to find 2 nodes that were mineable and another 2 that showed on minimap as being there but they didn't exist (bright yellow dots so not the dull yellow underground ones).
So basically I am wondering if I have that bad of luck (as I only ran into 1 other miner in that time) or if the nodes are not really there anymore. I only played 3 weeks of vanilla when it was current but I seem to remember there being more nodes around.