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Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying there shouldn't be some effort required. All I'm saying is that there needs to be a decent effort/reward ratio. As for what is "decent", I feel that it should be high enough for even those who only play a couple hours a night to feel like they are accomplishing something but low enough that the rewards feel more like a payment than a gift, and they should not be so unbalanced that one feels forced to be K/K-worshipping nationalist.
Yes, but that was not what I was getting at. I feel any cooldown more than two Atysian days (2h24m RL time) should align better with RL clocks so they can be done about the same RL time every day (or every X days). For example, a mission that can be done every other day should have a CD timer closer to 1d20h or so. That way, it's easier to just shrug and find another mission without resenting the fact that you can't stay up/on long enough to do it two nights out of every three the way those without full-time jobs can. Think of it as marketing; even if it doesn't make sense in any objective manner, it is perceived as making a bit more sense ("Okay, I can do this every 2 days, that one every 3 days... round numbers are good!") and thus causes less unrest.
That glosses over the fact that NH was really the only way to get faction points (all-night-long package runs don't count), and that the *4 bonus that +100 fame got versus +50 pretty much made it mandatory to have an alt fence your goods for you. IMO, a better system would've been to have more missions with shorter CDs and smaller payouts so that those who didn't feel like forgoing all hunting or leveling simply to do a tour of the camps could still earn points at all. Based on parts of your post I didn't quote, it seems we agree there.
It seems to still have a lot of truth though. What you seem to overlook is that the world is not a homogeneous place with uniform styles and preferences. We have differing views of the level of immersion required before one should be driven/kicked from the game for not RPing enough (I've seen games where talking OOC would get you whacked with the Banhammer!), or whether an RPG should be more like an organic world full of "real" people or simply a MOBA with deeper character customization options. It's worth noting that some come here to stop playing a role for a bit, take a break from the immersion of being someone they're not because that's what society demands, and being themselves for a little while. In other words playing a different role IG than you do IRL is simply just a kind/style of RP.

Also, "You don't have to fight in PvP, but you can."; it's a choice, and whichever way one decides is equally valid. Yeah, those who want to should have more opportunity to do so than they currently do, but for this discussion, lets just say that whether or not to PvP should remain more a matter of personal preference than of mechanics.
The "Era a long time gone" you refer to is an era of segregation and isolation. Now that those cultures are sharing a unified server, the choices are to either respect the diversity or to pick sides and disenfranchise folks. I would prefer Atys to be a place where the "normal people in a virtual world" players could co-exist amicably with those that make Jared Leto's portrayal of The Joker look non-committal, and where there is less animosity between PvP aficionados and the less gladiatorial players. In short, I want an Atys that has something to offer for anyone who is willing to learn the mechanics and respect their fellow players.
I favor the latter option.