NPCs are the lifeblood of a campaign. Without them you're not going to populate the world. But there's limits.
Personally I refuse to have an essential NPC unless there's an excellent reason and even then they're more background equipment than a person.
Example. I was running a Firefly game using Savage Worlds rules, because I hate the Cortex rules that come with the Serenity books and the setting really is Cowboys in Space so Savage Worlds is perfect. If you're interested in all my background material comment here and we'll work something out.
I had four player and none of them wanted to play the medic. Fair enough. It's not a very action packed role and losing that character can really be a problem. Hence "Doc in a Box" came into being.
Doc was an essential NPC. He got his share of the loot. But in no way was he ever essential to anything they were trying to do except to patch them up afterwards. I refused to use him as a plot device (Oh Noes! Doc got kidnapped! You have to find him!) but he did have some personality. Occasionally he was part of the role playing, he always had at least two very lovely women waiting for him in port although no one ever noticed him using the communication equipment, and he remodeled the med bay and his personal quarters when the ship was in for repairs. I purposely kept him mysterious.
But I didn't try to play my own game.
Non-essential NPCs run the world. They're the people in the villages, they're the people met on the road, they're the ones delivering messages, they're the ones hiring the party to do stuff. Without them it would be adventuring parties wandering around with nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nothing to buy. Those NPCs rarely need to be fleshed out to be more than a job description.
Sometimes you'll find the PCs latch onto an NPC either for good or ill. It happens. Nothon the information weasel may suddenly be someone they want to protect and find who misuses him. PCs tend to do this without notice and for no reason that can be determined. That's great. They're interacting with the world.
Those NPCs need to have a bit of a story, some mannerisms, and some relationship to other NPCs in the game. They can be their entire own sidequest. The party may even want to bring them along when they leave. That's where things can get tricky because it sucks the GM into playing a character in the game. Nothon is no longer background once he gets on the road.
Every GM has different opinions on this. Some like to both run the game and have a place in the party as well. Some don't want to have to worry about the NPC's status while running the world. That's a completely personal choice and I won't say whether it's good or bad. The GM is the only person who can do that.
When I'm prepping a game I keep a list of names on hand. That way when the party encounters various and sundry NPCs I don't have to fumble for what they're called. The roles are easy enough since but names are more difficult for me. When I use a name I put it in my notes as to who they are and where the party met them. I also note what was the result of that interaction.
Players tend to forget about NPCs once they've moved on. The same can't be said for NPCs. If the party has caused problems that the NPCs have to deal with later (Nothon no longer has his protectors) then it's a huge opportunity for situations to arise in other encounters. The world doesn't actually center around the PCs and continues to spin on after they leave an area.
Use your NPCs as you see fit. But think about what happens when the PCs leave the area and how that can impact future interactions. Nothon's tormentors aren't happy with the PCs embarrassing them so the pass along word to their fellows in the next few villages. The merchant they cheated has told the caravans about them so their reputation precedes them and they have to deal with hostile merchants until they get much farther away. The barmaid they wouldn't stop pestering has family spread out across the area and aren't at ALL happy with how their cousin was treated.
It's more work but it gets immersive when consequences come back many sessions later. The players are confused as to why these things are happening until someone puts it together and they realize what they've done. It probably won't stop them from doing it again so be prepared for continuing NPC interactions based on previous encounters.
That having been said I recommend using this sparingly. Every NPC interaction shouldn't spawn future implications. Buying stuff from the magic component shop with no difficulty means that NPC fades into the background unless they go back to that specific shop. Pick up on when the players spend more time with an NPC and decide if that series of interactions could mean something further down the road. Literally, further down the road.
To wrap up I'll go back to my Firefly game. I used extended families to run business interests on different planets. It's a variant on the feudal structure and it's pretty stable for far flung enterprises where there's not an easy way to keep in contact. When the players would get to another location they'd more than likely find a business with connections back to a family they'd worked with in the past and there was a better chance of getting work for them. It wasn't in any way railroaded by me but they chose one family that they kept working for and that was the one where I spent more time on making more fully fleshed out NPCs. The rest? They had names and basic personalities.
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