Something else I've also realised that makes Disco PvP significantly less interesting compared to other games: bizarrely, it's a game where you actually won't improve much from playing the game regularly in normal interactions. Investing time into conn to improve is a mandatory requirement, and I think for a lot of players that's not very fun. It feels disconnected from the experience of the overall game. It turns improvement into a chore, rather than something that can grow naturally from normal play (and in tandem with the RP experience).
Also something else other people have touched upon; the overall balance of ship classes seems to change wildly each year and it can be tedious to keep up. Not to downplay the efforts of Developers trying to improve the game, but lowkey I've never really understood why every year it seems like balance has to change so drastically. Could be rose-tinted glasses speaking but for me the balance of .86/87 outside some fringe cases was largely fine.