Well since I'm too lazy to read everything you people wrote there I'm just going to say this:
I found AOP rather noob friendly. I never played fonline before when I started playing this game last autumn. People (and esp. Paragon) have been very very helpful to me as a new player. By donating the occasional gear, by helping me make a playable character, by being endlessly patient and explaining game mechanics and tactics over and over again (and I still haven't learned).
On the other hand PVP in AOP is heavily dependent on team play. Gear and build are, imo, less important than how well you play together. One persons actions can lose the battle. So its understandable that there is a certain hesitation towards taking newbies to a PVP fight. When its 15 vs 15 its not so much of a problem to have a couple of people randomly running around. But in 5vs5 it can be critical.
In VTEC you have to be either very new (like lvl 3) or a total idiot to not be 'allowed' to join in PVP. Although Paragon does make a habit of threatening to 'make people join the Family' if they don't behave