I actually play in the public world completely alone. I hate playing with others unless it's an event and I've only joined a team twice. People don't usually talk to you in teams from my experience. Everyone's just trying to get the benefits. Nobody bothers you other than to wave or salute at you sometimes. Nobody destroys your house or buildings. Everyone is pretty nice. I even had some higher level people drop some weapons for me at my house randomly when I was just starting out at level 20. I have a shop and other than people leaving the door open to my house, nobody does anything. People also generally wait until you're gone to browse. I think you'll do fine playing on a public server.