When Bp Samuel Ruiz was Bishop in, I think, Chiapas (part of Mexico with a whole lot of extremely poor non-Spanish-speaking indigenous Indians) he was ordaining hundreds of deacons. His aim was to ordain practically all of his married-man catechists. The Vatican at that time told him to cool it.
But --- not that I'm an expert on church-growing --- I really thought having a lot of married deacons was the way to go in that church-neglected, sacrament-starved area where people hardly ever saw a priest, maybe twice a year or something.
At least the deacons could catechise, baptize, marry, and bury them in consecrated ground. \
A truly holy bishop attracts many priestly vocations, perhaps that is better than more deacons.