Thanks for all this input, people. I'm glad not many of you are in the same lousy situation as I am, but of course loads of people may be stuck in wastelands like me but simply quit without ever visiting the forum - and no wonder.
Just for clarity, my 5-8 pages are also 90% undiscovered - I have no idea which direction on the map to go to look for them, even. I take 150% trades whenever I can, because I don't have much choice, and to help/encourage the recipient. And all the trades I post are bargains. Many of them are accepted within a day or two but not all, because the distribution of boosted goods among active players is too unbalanced.
And after I submitted an in-game support request about this situation I now have 10-12 pages of trades. Maybe they can/should increase the trading "range" for people stuck in wastelands. They should also rethink the way boosts are distributed to keep them balanced better among active players (ie, don't assign all three boosts from the get-go, and don't tie them to the map - both of those cause way too many problems). And they need to move active players closer together.