Well, Jace, I didn't say you should band together to fight evil. Maybe if gate camps every few minutes had to deal with roaming meteors, rabid pack drone attacks that jump through gates into highsec, running out of oxygen or fuel, DED finding out their real identity and shutting down their clone network, having to fence illicit goods that, if recognized, get their mule arrested or worse, electromagnetic storms, solar wind, ship degradation with all the good facilities in higher security space, or something of that nature, we wouldn't see so many people take it up.
As it stands, EVE is doing its best to encourage one particular kind of play even if they aren't threatening you with the army of darkness. The universe isn't trying to kill anyone, makes it comparatively easy to play a prick, and then doesn't really reward you if you decide being a prick isn't your thing. It's no less of a mold than something like WoW has; EVE is built to encourage that specific kind of play. No giant soul-eating demons required.
I dislike the impetus to either jump into a null corp or faction warfare to get anywhere in the game, especially because the reasons for making us do this are kind of blatant (screw the rather idiotic way faction warfare gets handled, why are the research and manufacturing stations near the centers of learning, culture, and trade in highsec so much worse than the ones elsewhere?)
For all the complaints I have with WoW, and after seven years I have a few, the last one I'd have is a feeling of inflexibility. If I want to PVP in WoW, I can play that as a gladiator in arenas, soldier in BGs, or I can just jump on an RPPVP server and let them try to kill me everywhere. If I don't want to PVP, I can raid, run challenge dungeons, grind reps, run a pet combat team, set up for world bosses, whore achievements, or build professions. I can roll all of that into RP if I want, or not. WoW's biggest problem isn't making you into something, it's that there's so much for them to keep track of that tweaking something in the game affects a dozen other things where it would essentially form an exploit.
Well, that and heirlooms. Worst thing that ever happened to the game.