I think this is a common misconception about games like EVE. I played it for about 7 years, and have continued playing full loot MMOs and survival games since then.

The PvP in EVE was the most exhilarating experience I have had in a computer game. This was intrinsically tied to both the consequences of loss and the thrill of victory, and reward - something you just cannot get from ‘theme park’ MMOs. Learning to harness the adrenaline rush and overcome the post-fight shakes was a very real thing that many of us spoke of. It’s that which kept myself and many of the people I played with locked in for so long.

My focus was solo and small gang PvP - initially low-sec piracy, but later moving on to null-sec roaming and wormhole diving. After the first few months, I played almost no PvE content, and funded all ships and eventually my main account through PvP activity alone.

It’s been about 10 years since I stopped playing - and the game may well have changed significantly since then - but the solo and small gang PvP which I engaged in was pretty easy to get into then. Sure you’d die a lot in the first month, but the trick was to keep your ships cheap, play to it’s strengths, and try to learn from every engagement.