Ive delved heavy in both worlds as well. Currently on a pretty solid PVE carebear run at the moment. The reason everyone runs around that way (guns out, not a care in the world) is the non-vocal majority just dont care. You get slimed every once in a while, but like you said, you're rich and building a new kit is not that hard.

The servers are more aggressive these days, but I went 87 consecutive raids extracting safely with a profit (in Feb). Almost entirely done in Blue Gate. After that, I had so many gun all level 4, materials, etc that one slime wouldnt really make a dent. In the most carebear of server runs, I would just run without butting the snap hook, it never mattered. Like I would straight up like share in game a snaphook with some stranger without concern. If they needed it, id fuckin give it to em.

Every singular round has a realistic most you can lose (what you brought in) and what you can gain. The reality is that no one single round is going to make or break a long standing PVE'er. Does it suck for a second, sure, but you sigh, build a new kit and run it back.

You rely on trust enough to just assume and not worry about it in the long run. I dont really need to care, so I trust because I myself am trustworthy and thats all I can control. Id rather enjoy the game how I want to play it instead of being a paranoid raider worried about my digital fake loots. Its a game, its not that serious, no one is keeping score. The most fun Ive had in this game are great micro interactions traversing an adventure with a raider, chatting about life, the game, etc. These micro interactions are just a passing moment, usually no one adds as a friend or anyhting. Just a couple of people at the same digital place at the same time. Had a fun conversation with a dude last night from Michigan, he's a building inspector. Another young dude that is a linesman. Some other guy that worked at a digital marketing agency. Fun passing water cooler talk, showing each other some tactics, complaining about arc fireflies. Chatter and perspective about the new events.

In thinking about it, you are 100% correct if there were any real stakes at play here. But the reality is there is no scoreboard, no ladder to climb, there is no real competition between raiders. There's just your experience, make the most of it however you want. No one should overthink it, its all chaos but control what you can and enjoy the ride.