1) Enough did bitch about it I'd argue. And I can maximize obs/xp with ease, and I still find it annoyingly tedious to do it, even if it takes me half the time it takes other players (honestly, can people not get to 15k of each in a few hours at hero if they focus on it). I imagine the evidence on their end by just observing players probably shows most players making obs/expl xp runs while engaging in zero/little RP. The fact that it is being actively farmed by a majority of players is a reason in itself to disincentivize the behavior. Area explores were once supposedly challenging areas, meant for groups and the like to discover and maybe overcome the challenges within. Now they may as well be scripted places to visit when someone either wants the obs/exp xp or a specific item from the place.

2) The grind should be worth so little in terms of perks that people don't feel the need to grind it out anymore solely for those perks. The edge points for those things should be an after thought that comes through playing the game, not the requisite to playing the game people make it out to be. While eliminating it completely was probably taking it to far, I think this moves the vision of CF they have closer to what they want it to be. Keep in mind, I am assuming that the Imms want to move CF in this direction and have plans in place beyond this, and it's not something I am actually in favor of. I liked the old system, mainly because it was so easy to abuse. But that abuse had people engaging my char to go there with them, so on some level, it still created the interactive opportunity. If PK is the primary edge point system, yay for more evil no rp multi killing douches spawning. Quas loves him some PK. I find PK so boring I can't even come up with reasons to engage in it with a char. I'd rather just sit around and BS with people. It's just a matter of player taste there though, but PK already motivates people to disregard RP.

3) If the point of exploration is gear/preps/quests why do you care if you earn a mechanical reward in terms of edge points for engaging in it (or that the value was lessened)? Maybe you are rereading the NPC descriptions in Organia for the 1000th time. Most of us are doing l 1.;2 2.;l 3.;... because we've read it before.
If you're doing those things for gear/preps/quests, aren't the gear preps/quests you acquire/complete the reward for doing it?
CF is a Multiplayer RPG, it's not a solitary RPG. Why should I be able to accrue multiple edges by playing the single player version of CF when the whole point of the game is the player to player interactions supposedly.

As to the rest, it was assumption on my part that I was hoping they would engage in as a result of their change. You're right, it wasn't stated that they would do this, and I agree, saying that they would probably would have smoothed the reception of this over far better.

I think Imm xp requirements for anything should be gone.
I think the Imms should involve themselves more in the game as gods and as interactive NPCs.
It's what I would hope to see the Imms do to compensate for the change. Yes, obs/exp were easy easy ways to farm edges points. But maybe the Imms wanted to drive CF away from being a game where players have to farm things, or even where they feel they have to. There is enough of that with ranking/skill practice.