Quick Question:

No

https://www.chess.com/openings/English-Opening

Over 280,000 games in the Explorer database, so yes, people do play it. I've played this opening before, but it's not one of my main openings.

I play against it and either adopt a symmetrical opening setup with it or sidestep a lot of the opening theory by playing 1... Nf6. There are plenty of chances to play on both wings for both players, notably the lines that have either f4 or f5 advances, usually with a Knight on e2 or e7 depending on the side making the push. White also looks for the a3/b4 break though many games also see the center locked up with either an open c file to battle over it the Knights are exchanged on d4 and d5 or play revolves around half open files on the c and e files. Plus, you can play some lines like a reversed Sicilian as well.