There were equal amounts of updates for pvp and pve (i am assuming you mean civilization building), but most of them were "improvement" of the current tool and systems . You think that pvper's don't want NPC , and survival elements , everyone would loves these features, except for carebears , because it adds danger to the game . But NQ seems to not be capable of adding the simplest of mechanisms to the game , so you have to taper your expectations , so i suggest simple things like greatly reducing the number of asteroids in the safe zones , since it is player against player , no NPCs are needed . The pets that they added is just cosmetic , and there is no profit to be made , why didn't they turn them into mobs , it is not because they don't want to, it is because they can't .
Just like planetary mining , pvp was arguably nerfed , avatar boarding ships was removed , instead of adding avatar vs avatar combat , they just add impenetrable barriers , that indefinitely stays on . I expect NQ to do that , because they don't have the numbers(devs) to pull off AvA combat or anything that would significantly change the way pvp and pve is played. When a company aiming for realism can't add simple mechanisms like fall damage to their game , that should let you know what they are actually capable of achieving.