Can stress this point, I’m not talkin outta the blue, been a VERY active wilds farmer until couple weeks ago, in reborn I got an alt with pvp on, always, on purpose, from the very start… yet even if I go for exploring the risk is minimized, you can run around for hours with no encounters. Especially in the ‘safe zone’ around HS I suppose everyone will turn it on, it would be dumb to level at least to like 5 without, because pvp is in fact ‘off’, except the bonuses! And yes, farming is superfast, double resources is worth alot with still not too many resources growing at a spot in the first place.
The suggestion to scale rewards after people on server is good in theory, but for EU players (and likely Australian) that would mean either getting up at 4am to catch the bonus or skip their dungeon evenings, extra to farm; it would favor those living in US timezones.