Honestly FW didn't do much for me, one way or the other, so enough said on that.
But ont eh topic as a whole, I'll agree that FW really killed off a lot of RP, and I've noticed that any time there is a "war" in a RPG, it does really kill off a lot of posibilities and really strains the RP theme. Think about this. Now that we are "at war" with each other, you have all said it, fighting for your nation is the only way to go. But that doesn't make sense, since we can never win the war, or lose it. Its totally meaning less. But back when the empires were at peace, you could either be nice and peaceful, or you could shoot at your neighbor, and either way the empire you support could pat you on the back while offically having nothing to do with your blowing up that ammo dump or whatever.
Just thinking about it, I think FW should have been "cold war." Where the militias would be mostly like they are today, but more underground, and truely third party warfare like the cold war was in real life. So the empires would be like the Americans and the Soviets, and the capsuleer corps would be like the North and South Korea's and such before the actual Korean war. That way, the fighters can fight, and other who don't want to fight don't have to and can still support their empires. And the Empires can give neat stuff the to the fighters, but its all on the sly.
Maybe I should pitch that to CCP for a temp fix to faction warfare, and give us more RP stuff to work with.