"There are ways to hike the PCT and avoid the crowds."

One thing I did learn in thru-hiking was that most trails are empty most of the time. If a person normaly does short- to moderate-length trips during the best weeks of summer, starting from trailheads near populated areas, it's easy to form the opposite conclusion, but for a person walking longer distances you can get away from what then feels like temporary patches of density.

OTOH, on a long trip it can be easy to forget what day it is and find yourself walking walking rather suddenly into densely packed trails on a weekend. Oh well! There's an upside to that too: lots of day hikers near the trailhead means you have a good chance of hitching a ride into town!