People mentioned many of the points I'm about to make already, I just want to add my voice to theirs.
PvP rewards are not where we want them yet. We're working on it. Making MoVs tradable (so they're more like currency) is the first step. All the turn-ins are being retuned in 1.3. I don't know what that means specifically yet, but I can tell you that PvP rewards are something I debate with the designers on a regular basis.
PvP rewards are for PvP WINNERS. If a player never wins they are eventually going to just quit, so it's obviously not the goal to put people in that situation. It is expected that everybody will lose sometimes, though, and when they do they come out poorer for it. If the game isn't zero-sum (i.e. the losers lose about as much as the winners win) then PvP becomes a way for new wealth to enter the economy, and it's generally supposed to be removing a bit of wealth.
Rankings and leaderboards are something we really want to add, but it's not going to happen right away. These are great for bragging rights, but we have more fundamental issues to focus on first (like PvP rewards.) They're on the Big List of Stuff to Add, but not right at the top.
The danger of PvP is a big part of the appeal for a lot of people. I don't know exactly what percentage that is, but it's pretty big. Unfortunately I can't query people's personalities in the database.
The open-world style PvP we have adds lots of danger because you can't totally control what you're fighting against, so you could end up outclassed. You could also end up outclassing the other guy. This creates lots of interesting dynamics where you can get the guy above who likes to kill lowbies and the other guy who likes to kill guys who like to kill lowbies. This is good.
On the other hand, there currently isn't a way to PvP without risking a lot. One of the things we're adding in 1.5 is balanced PvP where you don't lose durability. This system is intened to do two things: 1) allow people to practice PvP in a safe environment so they aren't total newbies when they do it "for real" in port conquest, 2) Allow well matched fights and more complex scenarios, and 3) Allow players to have PvP fights against other players of their own nation. It's not meant to replace the in-world PvP, though. That's still the way you conquer ports.
Our in-world PvP is entropic like it is in EVE or Shadowbane. I think that's a good thing. Additional PvP rewards for victors will make it a little LESS entropic, but it will still reduce wealth overall. The big thing it's missing is a non-entropic cousin, and the Skirmish system in 1.5 will provide that. Fixing those two things will take our PvP from good to great, IMHO.
Joe