I get that they don't want to do PvE, and I understand it to a point. It would be a bit of challenge to implement in a way that would work well. (Functionally its not super hard, just give the player the option to join a PvE server and treat PvE servers different from PVP servers, like add more 'E''s to make up for the pvp challenge and screw it lower the rewards for PvE servers if you want, I mean from a technical perspective probably not super easy to just whip up and throw into the game.)
But as the game stands currently wanting to just do PvE is impossible. Even the things they've added into the game to make it more PvE friendly like alliances literally mean nothing. Incident that I think finally pushed me over the edge is another ship made an alliance, helped us fight off another player who was instantly hostile, loaded a bunch of loot onto our ship, then blew us up and killed us. And I can't fully understand why?
Like sure, if you want to PvP and do ship combat and fight ship to ship that seems like it could be fun, not really what I'm after but seems like a good time, but actively pretending to work with someone just to blow them up for little actual gain? Athena's Fortune emissaries too, and its not like we were gathering some super high level sweet rare loot. Just some basic stronghold chests.
Regardless, I know Sea of Thieves probably isn't going to do anything to try and improve the PvE experience. Feel like enough people have asked for that and it hasn't happened so I'm not asking for it here. But the way the game currently stands for anyone who wants to do anything other than PvP its just not possible to enjoy it for longer than a mission or two. Its actually a little sad that a game that's been constantly updated with content that appears to be 'PvE' based can't let people actually enjoy those moments without someone else showing up to ruin the party by blowing your ship to smithereens for minimal or, most of the time, no actual loot gain.
Like I said before, this isn't going to change, the game will keep being what it is so if you like PvP you don't need to tell me to get good I know all I'm good at in this game is driving my little ship around. It'd just be nice to see the game open up to a more friendly atmosphere, especially since they have quests where you have to work with other people.