The problem is, PvE and PvP doesn't capture the nuance...
@Hellrider calls it right in that it's competitive.
But, Powerplay as it currently stands is Competitive PvE. The reason it got introduced is that, much to FDs surprise, people started to use the BGS as a framework for competition, which wasn't FDs intent... something you can see that looking under the hood of the BGS and it's mechanics.
In other words... the BGS was always meant to be non-competitive PvE, rather, just the changing background of the world. Players still turned that into a competitive aspect of the game, but the BGS is inherently unbalanced. That's why PP1 was meant to be the balanced, competitive overlay to the game... but that got applied through a PvE lens.
Unfortunately, PP1 just didn't capture the things that people enjoyed with the BGS; I could provide support to a faction by undertaking a range of activities, or I could support a Power in a particular effort by doing... one thing... over and over. It completely missed the point of what was enjoyable.
Trading and mining from solo isn't PvP. But it is competitive in the context of the BGS. But players controlling the BGS deliberately was never intentional.... so PP2 could very much be a vector for offering broad-strokes changes to the BGS (not just cosmetically) and make it uncontrollable at a large scale. This would need to be coupled with BGS changes which make all states good for the player experience, in their own right. But that's getting a little OT
PP2.0 should still be competitive, but if they really want to make it accessible, that needs to reward PvE and PvP fairly. This means allowing people who just want to PvE (yes, that includes solo) to do so, and to allow people who want to PvP to do so as well.
That doesn't mean shunting people who want to PvE under the noses of those who want to PvP. If we land somewhere where PP PvE activities done in solo can't provide effective impact, it will fail. If people who want to PvP can't do it and provide effective impact as well, it will also fail.
Instead, whatever PP offers needs to push people who want to PvP together, and let people who want to PvE to do just that, regardless of mode. And if they want to
incentivise engagement with that mechanic , then losing PvP needs to be as rewarding as winning PvE at an individual level, and winning PvP needs to create an identical differential to "winning PvE" activities at the powerplay perihelion.
This is exactly how games which are dedicated to competitive PvP operate.... participation and loss is still rewarding at a personal level, but success rewards at the collective level, and even more at the personal level.
This can't be achieved in a construct where a PvE player goes into open to do that activity, and walks away with nothing. It's worth calling out here that the difference in rewards in something like EVE between high sec and low/null sec is orders of magnitude in difference. Applying that logic to Elite as a reward split between playing in Open vs playing in Solo is doomed to fail, primarily due to instancing, but for a huge host of extra reasons.
Next they'll actually make security matter and tie that to the rewards!
