I think i can see why the previous MMO ive played didnt have this problem (problem being people complaining about being killed by other players) - they were all race vs race games. So there was always an inbuilt justification for any PvP - Im an Accretian and you are a Bellato (insert races from whichever game). Space robots hate space midgets and we are at war, was all anyone ever needed. It was still ganking, gear based and one sided, but there was RP justification, automatically.
Not really caring about RP i never really realised that was the deciding factor.