The problem is its a group activity at heart, but assumes you know whats best hence your feelings on it- FD gave us no in game way to organise relying on forums like Reddit initially and then Discord (today). Its doubly ironic as Powerplay is really a prototype for squadrons really, and in reality the two should have been transposed so squadrons was in 1.3 after wings and Powerplay much later.
The issue I see with PP is that the "fairness" aspect of it is completely broken. Let me give you a keen example in what broke me several times after trying to get into PP.
So 2 factions going for a system, one going for control, other is trying to undermine. The faction trying to control is a combat faction, meaning that their members go there and fight in conflict zones, and each kill gives 10 merits/points toward controlling that system. Now combat is the only way a combat faction can spread, they have no other options other then go there and kill.
Now the undermining faction trying to stop their expansion is a "transport" based one, meaning they get items from the power contact in their home or controlled system, then deliver them for 1 merit/point toward controlling the system for 1 item.
So lets pretends its 1 vs 1
The transport player can hit solo/private play to avoid the opposing combat player, and transport 600+ units per run. That would require the combat player to score 60+ kills for every transport run the other player does.... which is just impossible. With solo/private groups, the current system is just not fair, so it really need to get reworked to attain some balance. At the moment PP is dead because, its simply not fair, thus not attractive when there are other things one can do with BGS and minor factions attached to squadrons. Till those issues of fairness are addressed PP is pretty much just something people do to get the desirable faction modules.