Ack ... too many pages to read ... read a couple of pages from the beginning, and read some of the pages at the end.
My 2 C-Bills (for what it's worth).
1) For many, if not most of us, it's the first viable MechWarrior/BattleTech game in over 10+ years. We *LOVED* the "big, stompy, shoot-em-up robot mayhem" and that's why we're here, it's as simple as that ... period.
2) Is this game perfect? ... got news for you guys ... *NO* game is perfect ... there's *always* room for improvement and PGI's working on it. Does it seem haphazard at times? ... Try having thousands of people constantly screaming in your ears, demanding everything under the sun and see how well *YOU* do.
3) Why team up / group up / join a unit / get on TS / etc? For me it's simple, it's for the social aspect. All the coordinated movement, tactics, etc are just a bonus. We get to celebrate together when we succeed, and yell and scream and blame each other when we fail (and believe me, we really get ugly with each other when we fail

).
4) Why play CW? Simple, you can end up doing something really stupid with your first or even second mech and still make up for it with the rest of your mechs. In the Public matches, if you screw up, you're done, it's over for you, start another search.
5) No rewards in CW? Um ... Faction Loyalty Points / Levels? ... I haven't done the math (too lazy) but I'm pretty sure that the rewards are far greater overall than the Public Achievements rewards. Sure it'd be nice if taking / holding planets gave you something (other than bragging rights). It'd also be nice if we could actually *DO* something with the Unit Coffers. Once again, I believe that PGI's working on it.
My personal opinion is that the biggest issue is NOT with the game, but with the mentality of too many of the players. Many come from those FPS games where (while you may be assigned to a team) it's basically a go-do-your-own-thing, free-for-all. MWO is *NOT* one of those types of games, never was, and (hopefully) will never become one. This is true in both Public and CW matches. If you're one of those go-do-your-own-thing, not-work-with-others type of person, then you may be happier with some other game. I'm sure that your teammates would appreciate it.
When I first started playing this game ... let's face it ... I sucked ... being ineffective, losing, over and over and over again. It was about a month before I even heard about Teamspeak. Just getting on comms made a *WORLD* of difference. Sure, I still lost many a game ... but now I didn't lose as many games and I was able to either learn from others or learned *with* others what worked and didn't work both mech build-wise as well as tactically on the field. Joining a unit just made everything more consistant and we won many more games than we lost.
For you guys *CONSTANTLY* moaning and groaning about the quality of 'Solos / PUGS' that you end up with on your team or even on the opposing team, let me ask you something ... what have you personally *DONE* about it, anything? ... have you tried to direct / guide them through in-game chat / VOIP? Yeah, I know that wrangling PUGS sometimes is harder than herding cats (and there are those that just won't listen ... ever) but I've had many matches in both Public and CW where I've been lucky enough to do exactly that and we've won ... even against full 12-man teams. Our unit has, on many occasions, told the enemy PUG / Rainbow team exactly what our attack plans were at the start of the match. Once (although, I wasn't there to be a part of it

), our unit did a batchall and bid away our first 24 mechs ... even before they knew who they were up against. Luckily someone recorded it. And for the record, we won that match

. Our unit tries to make it a point to teach / guide others both friendly and enemy so *EVERYONE* can have more fun. I'm sure that many/most people can learn what we've learned on their own, we just want them to learn it quicker

.
I can think of several dozen guys that I've played with over the years from many different units that if we all ended up on the same team, not using TS, nor in-game VOIP, nor in-game text chat ... I'd bet that we'd either completely smoke the enemy team or at least give them one hell of a run for their money. It's called experience ... it's called having a clue ... we might not be on any type of comms, but we've learned and know what needs to be done and we do it, not individually, but together ... as a team.
Bottom line is that if you want better Solos / PUGS, then you more experienced guys *HAVE* to help them get more experience in the game and get better. I'm pretty sure that when many / most of you started out playing this game, you weren't all that good either, at least compared to how you are now.