not everyone who slow ranks does it to kick the dirt in new players eyes though, some do it because that is what fits their life, others do it because they have goals they wanted to meet, your only looking at from the perspective of pvp, which gratned this is a war game so that is a valid viewpoint, but its not the only one out there.

and at playing for 971 days ive been around longer than you, so i cant argue with proven results, flip side though ive caught up to many players twice my rank by doing my own thing, so I also have something to show for time spent. Its all in the choices that we make really.

Staying low rank because you have no time to play is fine; doing it because you think it is going to make you stronger is wrong

And the goals you talk about, most of the time they are based on calculations that take into account your rank. Again, a mistake... the goals should be based on time played (e.g. 50k attack / 100k aph per year played is a good goal) which is a better reflection on how well you are doing in general terms.

So rank up people... kill loads on NPCs, spend your daily actions on PvP, fight bases, collect all possible scan modules and go on scans sprees, do not add too many decks and terraform the crap out of all the good planets you own (and cloak them well enough!).