Becoming good at RP takes just as much a time investment as being good at PvP. The difference is that you can become good at RP by pixel dong sucking on Second Life and earn real world money whilst doing so; (RP is a transferrable skill from other games and internet roleplay platforms). Disco PvP of the mouse-z/x-WASD-Tab variety is entirely unique to Disco: there is no other game that I can think of off-bat which has a similar PvP experience.
Unbalanced dogfights between one pro and one noob last for around 2 mins of real world time - there are few games which require similar time investments for one-on-one encounters, even in MOBAS. FPS games especially try to keep the respawn ticker flying as fast as possible - Disco does the opposite: players are discouraged from dying by long, satisfactory fight sequences and the 2-hour rule. Disco also has a clever balance system wherein the most transparently "Pro" ships in terms of grind investment (Battleships) are only transparently better than fighter craft in certain specialised situations (tanking, denying an area of space, or shooting bases and other large ships at long range), and each ship class has its own, entirely valid, function. Nobody could argue that credits entitle you to win.
Currently, heavy amounts of RP entitle you to win if your perception of "winning" is ingame goodies, storyline influence, clan creation and clan perks - so in this department, the RPers usually win out.
However, if your perception of "winning" is being able to win ganks as the gank victim, gain a stack of blue-messages in every engagement you enter in, and being able to survive piracy encounters without paying the pirate, you will have a more enjoyable ingame experience, in terms of game mechanics - you just won't be able to influence the story at large.
This is a good thing - it assigns each to their own. Besides, a lot of great Pvpers are poor Rpers and vice-versa. Each should be rewarded for their own investment.
THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)