Yeah I think that's the major thing pimd, but also an issue from the start has been that items from all parties drop (whether in a hunt or not) to low hitting members. I remember when pros came out that people were pissed off that low hitters were awarded high stat drops when people worked their asses off to complete a party and got nothing. If something could be done to counteract it across the board, not just to address lbh it would be good.
Encouraging loyalty would be great, and people believing they had a fair chance at getting into top 200 would be much more of an incentive than currently. You removed the gift aspect, which stopped people using alts and cash to buy their way into top 200, now they can lbh to get there. Larger rewards for war for the wining team with a reward for the loser (given the time taken for matching and missing out on parties) would be good perhaps since you're actually competing, assuming the inactives are sorted?