The wilderness percentage is probably not as bad as it sounds. I ranked in civilized areas quite a bit and still got in. I took main roads and such quite a lot. The only thing I really did was practice in wilderness areas and regen in wilderness areas.

The forced disliking point.. well, I think it's a good thing. I don't really play to make friends with everyone. More enemies = more PK. More PK = why I play. Also RP with enemies always seems to be more intresting.

Gathering things to barter vs. Gathering money:
In my experience, it seems like each take the same amount of time. Though, bartering is more limited if you're a outlander. I looked for other places to get potions I needed. I was usually able to keep a good supply of the essentials via bartering. I thought it would be more of a problem, but once you play around with it some, you get used to it. One annoyance is not being able to barter the same item if the shopkeeper already has one. So you have to find diffrent things that hold value. Also, you don't HAVE to gather anything you can still play without dozens of potions and still have fun. Though, it does help if you take the time to gather things.

And the money.. Well, I'm not too sure. Though, thinking about it I thought about some contadictions (somewhat).

First: Currency breeds corruption and greed (I would think you would look at it this way if you're an outlander). Though, The currency in CF is Gold, silver, and copper. Precious metals. They come from the earth naturally. Unless CF's gold, silver etc is diffrent then the real worlds. It is quite common for Outlanders to barter things such as gemstones. Would this not be kind of the same thing as using gold and silver?

Second: The things you barter if you are in outlander.. I believe their value is based off how much gold they are worth. I guess this is sort of a game mechanic thing. Though, it does seem kind of off for the whole outlander philosophy.

An idea I had while playing (Though, I admit it probably wouldn't work. Just thought I'd throw it out there) is having storage areas for outlanders. Everyone else has a bank, so I would think it would be cool if Outlanders could stash some things for future bartering (instead of lugging around dozens of things).

Anyway, I don't really understand what all the hoopla is about. I also don't really get why a lot of the playerbase (supposedly) hates this cabal. Seemed fun to me.