The reason why more people play PVP in swtor is.......... instant access. PVE fails because......manual grouping.
People have already tasted the sweet nectar of easy access in MMO's through other games. You can not just take away something people are accustom to and force them to back into the stone age. Bad decision on BW's part, I bet if they had the function from the get go, the sub bleeding would not have been as bad. I am not saying it would save the game, but at least keep people around longer. Spamming for LFG in chat is total fail, I hated having to do this in BC days of WoW.