Everyone seems to be in actual agreement here; that the game needs BOTH PVE and PVP improvements.
PVE will help raise the population and PVP will help retain the current and new population.
What it seems like we can't fully agree on is which needs to come first.
It truely is the chicken and the egg, because the game needs and will benefit from both.
I'm just of the opinion that the devs have added more PVE with the new islands, but haven't done anything with PVP Motivation, not combat itself; and that having a strong active Vetern base is going to be needed to support new players (Some don't need support of course).
As for motivating small groups to go to beta, really there isn't any reason other then for the sheer combat pleasure of it, which is enough for many players but as Anni has said here and I agree'd with many times, the Fun to Grind ratio for solo players is too extreme, and even for small corps as FOOM don't want to just 'throw' bots away.
There is also the PVP learning curve for new players, you have to blow up a lot of bots to get good, regardless of your equipment. Many new players don't realize or don't have the patience to just go out and lose bots, this is where being part of a med to large corporation actually HELPS new players, by providing light bots and mods and encouraging them to use them out there in beta, and be targets for FOOM type players. This is what I've been trying to say about needing to encourage and motivate corportations; not to eliminate small beta groups, but to provide more reasonable expectations for there to be small groups out there willing to lose bots.