I'm just going to be completely honest here, I think that safer seas should have the majority of restrictions removed and should allow players to fully experience and enjoy this game to it's fullest. (Read full post before reacting)
With all the restrictions you have put in place you're pretty much telling the hundreds of thousands of players who only want to play this game for the PVE and not experience or be at risk of PVP at all to go play a different game if they only want PVE (which is what they do and why this game has so much fewer active players than it could have)
I think rather than tell everyone who only wants to play PVE to go elsewhere instead you should embrace that some people just aren't interested in PVP whatsoever and allow them to experience and enjoy this wonderful game that you've made without any restrictions holding them back.
Now I'm not suggesting remove all restrictions, I'm suggesting you remove all of the non-pvp restrictions.
So for example ship captaincy and milestones none of that has anything to do with PVP and you can restrict players from earning any of the PVP specific ship milestones (if there are any) while still allowing players to use their captained ships in Safer Seas and earn all of the PVE specific ship milestones and progress.
Same thing with emissaries, players should be allowed to use emissaries and to level up all of the PVE factions up to their maximum levels in safer seas.
Also Athena voyages should be allowed and everything for the Athena's Vanguard should be unlocked and allowed in safer seas because it's all PVE only with no actual PVP requirements.
Obviously PVP exclusive things such as the monthly emissary ledgers and any PVP specific commendations can be restricted to only high seas, but you should allow players to earn all of the PVE commendations and rewards in safer seas.
Basically anything that isn't exclusively PVP (meaning anything that doesn't require you to somehow engage or interact with other enemy players) should be unlocked and allowed in safer seas.
As for PVP in order to make people actually want to engage in the PVP in this game instead of punishing them for only engaging in PVE you should instead heavily reward players for engaging in PVP
So for example make it so there's a permanent 2X gold and reputation earnings modifier always active at all times in high seas, and have exclusive rewards (like the emissary ledger rewards) that are exclusive to high seas that can't be earned in safer seas
So yeah I get that you guys want this game to be strictly PVPVE, but by not allowing players to choose not to engage in PVP if they don't want to all you're doing is making those people not play your game which in turn means less active players and less money being earned for you to further develop and improve this game.
Even Rockstar realized this a few years ago and that's why they removed all of the restrictions from invite only lobbies and now allow players to fully experience all of the games content in a strictly PVE only environment and then added bonuses to the PVP side of the game so if you choose to take the risk and play in a PVP enabled environment you get bonus rewards that you don't get if you stay in the PVE only environment.
All you're doing with all these restrictions you've applied to safer seas is telling your players "if you don't want to experience PVP and you only want to experience PVE then this isn't the game for you go somewhere else" which makes people do just that and not play this game and play other games like Skull & Bones or Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag instead.
So Rare, stop neglecting and punishing your players for only wanting to experience the PVE part of this wonderful game you've made and instead embrace and welcome them with open arms, it's 2025 guys come on.
Edit: The only changes I think are truly important for Safer Seas right now are allowing players to use their captained ships in Safer Seas (as well as letting us earn ship milestone progress in safer seas) and removing the level restrictions on each of the PVE only factions in safer seas (Merchants, Gold Hoarders, Order Of Souls, & Hunter's Call) allowing players to rank up each faction all the way to level 1000.
After thinking it over emissaries are a PVP thing so they can stay as they are and Athena's Fortune I suppose is technically kind of a PVP faction so I guess that can also stay exclusive to high seas for now as well (even though I personally still think it should be available in safer seas)
The rest of the game is fine as is, so yeah I think removing the absolutely outrageous level 25 reputation restrictions on the PVE factions (merchants, gold hoarders, order of souls, & hunter's call) and adding captaincy allowing players to use their captained ships in Safer Seas and progress all of their PVE only ship milestones (like fishing 😵💫) in Safer Seas would make Safer Seas pretty much perfect and would make players who don't wish to engage in PVP feel like they aren't being punished just for not wanting to engage in PVP.
