@wolfmanbush Calling a server with solo sloops and dedicated crews of 4 organic is cherry picking when talking about alliance servers.
I could go ahead and say that all of you who have a crew ''cheese the game'' and you don't deserve to have those cosmetics as you wouldn't have acquired them so easily yourself playing solo? Change my mind.
In a perfect and fair world where only honor matters - should these things exist, no. But I think the server hopping causes a bigger problem than players who play in alliance servers.
Alliance players usually had cosmetics from pirate emporium = Spent money = Better for the game
PVP hoppers might have done it too, but most likely they have pushed some players away as well
And to be honest with you, when I was sailing with a crew of 4 for few months, we had two PVP sweats in our crew, who would do majority of the work during PVP and we were always looking for PVP doing FOTDs etc... that felt a lot more safe than alliance servers where we would get arrogant players with 100 hours who act like the ''know-alls'' and then almost sink the ship harpooning the athena/stronghold kegs and you would be bailing like a mad man trying to stay afloat ^^
Also back to your point regarding alliance servers, still that does not answer the question of how it ruined economy as this is just showing strong dislike for players on alliance servers.
I personally hated the server hoping PVP, spoke about it here too. However it was stated that the devs dont mind it, so I made a decision I can live with it, just do my best to avoid them.
But that still does not ruin any economy as there is no inflation for 'organic' players, amount of treasure you acquire from quests is the same, organic alliance is still possible.
Significance as you mentioned is another topic and I doubt anyone would argue against what you said. It's obvious that getting 8mil on as a solo sloop and getting it from alliance is two different topics.
So a lot of my contributions towards maxed faction levels is a lot more significant than people who have done it with a crew. But at the end of the day, who cares. You play for your own enjoyment and amusement.
If you earn 1000 or you win it in lotto, the result in your bank account is exactly the same. Arguing of legitimacy of acquiring that amount would be a dive to ones insecurities.
P.S. I played on alliance server to get DA sails as trinkets ate through the few million I had saved. It took me 2-3 days, would have been quicker if other crews weren't full of incompetent money earners. And I am very happy with my decision, I can see a lot better and enjoy the scenery more.
It really grinded my gears when I was sailing and the waves rocked the ship where I had to wait to check the map, then go back to helm and wait for the ship to rock again until I could see in front without running to the front of the ship. I can live with anyone's opinion about my decision. Also never used another sail ever since. ^^