Getting annihilated everytime I played an MP game in Wargame was the greatest turn off to continuing to play. Chances are I wasn't the only one who felt that.
That and my experience of the hellhole that is Company of Heroes 2's community makes me in favour of keeping it "casual" (but not simple) and not pandering to the competitive crowd.
I'm part of what I would regard as an elite group of players in another game. We play our events, we have fun doing them, but we do zero to support the game. We just play in our passworded server and that's the end of it. Unless that game gets some sort of esports status (which is highly unlikely) we'll continue to do that for the foreseeable future.
The best way to have a full game is to have it for people like me who want the historical experience and the challenge of playing against other humans. Competitive play is bollocks. (It's fun undoubtedly, but bollocks)
I don't give a damn to why people are playing this game and what their fix is, but at the same time I am interested in having the biggest playerbase possible, so we won't have situation like in RD, when 3 months after release it was difficult to get a match.
If the multi won't be fun for casual/majority of players, then the game will be a barren land. Armchair generals will do the campaign - aprox 10hrs, then skirmish for the next 10 hrs, coz how long can you flog a dead horse and then what?
That said I am ok for making some adjustments, that will keep more people coming back long after release, even if it would mean adding some cheap gamification elements.