Regarding gang-banging & cabals:

Ganging sucks, but it has always happened, happens now and always will happen. Just like death and taxes. I agree with your point that people in cabals do this the most. Again, though, what can you do? I play an uncaballed character that looks for 1 on 1 or 1 on 2 fights*. It's difficult to find these fights, but they are there if you are patient.

I like cabals very much. The interaction with other players and "fighting for the cause" appeal to me. What does not appeal to me is the lopsidedness of the cabal wars. I don't like having to put up a defense against 6 attackers. For the most part, you either die defending or get the boot for not showing up. That's not fun for me. It's not fun being on the other side and destroying the lone defender either. Even fights in a raid or retrieval may happen, but I have not seen them happen very often.

This is primarily the reason I'm playing an uncaballed character. I'm having a good time doing my own thing, picking my fights and have even made a few allies. The downside of this is of course, the lack of people to help you get back on your feet, no cabal powers and less interaction.

My recommendation would be to play uncaballed for a bit and see where it takes you.

As an afterthought, I think looting should be left as is. All of the changes I've seen proposed would do nothing. If you die, any amount of lag that the IMMs put on looting will not prevent people from emptying your corpse before you make it back, in most cases.

*I have ganged on occasion, but I try not to. Most often it's the case of jumping in on a fight that I started.