I think I'm possibly more on the side of people like blink, saying there is no further purpose/goal/end game to work towards to. It's what ultimately turns me off the game every time I rejoin to play it. And every such time the time I stick around is a lot shorter than the previous.
The other thing turning me off is the grindy nature of gameplay. Everything is a grind in some way. Want to accumulate enough gear to be ready for a few rounds of PvP?
Trying the "safe" route by farming and instanced dungs- Hell of a grind and you can barely survive with most of the junk you get when pitted against better players or larger groups. So many useless items in this game it's a shame. (Yeah yeah I know what to do with them, scrap and use the parts for yet another shitty RNG-based grind activity called "crafting")
Trying to go to places that actually have a chance to drop usable gear- Get fucked by the players camping it, that already have tons of the stuff. Get fucked by the nolifers abusing loot timer schedules and find nothing at all. Or be forced to try your luck at ungodly hours when server population is lower and metagame the shit out of it yourself by playing by a schedule and/or with an army of alts.
No thanks. It's WORSE than real work and no matter what, it just never feels like an accomplishment, just like wasted time.
Due to these circumstances as well as the fact that I'm not that great at fighting in this game I never got to this magical point of having 1000s of tents and bases stocked full of gear.
I have the privilege of being an old fart still getting recognized by the other old farts that miraculously still are around and active (Thanks NCR

), but a new player on their own will have a shitty time. And forming a new gang at the current state doesn't seem to be a prosperous effort as well with all others well established. So yeah all you can do is join one of the established groups and depending on your preferences what sorta people you like to play with, the choices can become rather slim. Personally I'd point every new guy (or old but lone guy) towards JTS/NCR though their core group of players is mostly active during night time, which might not suit many.
And when you do get in a group, what do you really do? Lurk-scouting dungeons for ages to jump someone. Waiting for loot spawns or the way to rare "random" events for ages. Whoopie! Maybe a TC if you actually have the numbers and the will to spend yet another ~15 minutes standing around. Sierra or Mari dungeons - can be fun at times, sure. Simulation - fun for an hour and it gets stale af.
Player made events? Always a nice thing and I thank/respect every player who organizes them no matter what. I know myself that organizing an event takes effort and time.
But happens too rarely and most of them are just boring ass dick waving contests (bursting duels). Not very original, still good to have them.
WIPE is not the solution, just as boon says. You see it's the same old and lose interest fast and as new player you still are going to have the same old hurdles to overcome which many will not choose to do, because it's NO FUN, period. I don't even need wipes to have exactly that experience over and over when coming back.
By now the only reason for me to come back is anything but the current game. It's to see how some of my fellow players are doing and to check in on potential news about development of the next iteration of FOnline 2. Sadly the larger portion of this community can't handle those, so they don't get them.
But it's coming ..soon(tm)