Not just your experience, all of the games I've seen have a steady pulse of reviews about giving up due to of older players shitting on newbies, with devs silently endorsing it or having their hands tied by management because either "that's the way it's meant to be played" or they have a microtransactions shop and this toxicity encourages petty rage spending to catch up.

And it works, because despite the mixed or barely positive reviews, these games still enjoy a steady stream of players enjoying the cycle of abuse.

I'd consider it an exploitation of the "do unto others what was done unto me" psychological thing we humans tend to have going on.

The problem is that they're beyond another type of enemy. There's a a sizeable portion of players that loves just killing other players, not to loot them (because they're nebvies, there's nothing to loot), not to defend something, or whatever, just to relish in the carnage of helpless others.

I'm like your friends, I just never play a game if there's any PVP involved. It's not worth it. I play to have fun, not to be a perpetual victim.