The casual and solo/duo friendly nature of the game, by your own admission, is all the reason you need to login and play. If you need free stuff thrown at you to keep you logging in then the argument can be made the game isn't as fun as you make it out to be. It's all about the journey, not the goal, and that journey is completely removed when the goal is handed out simply for logging in.
1. That's a selfish view of the game. If you want an item and I am selling said item your being granted that item by a goblin chest does indeed have an impact on me. That's just basic supply and demand. We're playing on servers/worlds with thousands of other people, everything we do has an impact of some sort on the world around us and just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there.
2. Why wouldn't you play with me or anyone like me (whatever that means)?
While I am of the opinion that handing out items and gear via the goblin chest has a negative impact on the game that doesn't mean I abstain from receiving my fair share of those rewards. I don't WANT to be given anything for free, I want to earn it, but let's be frank here, I'll spend the 10 seconds or so to check the goblin chest every time I login for my shot at millions of gil or useful piece of gear just like you.
That's not so much encouragement as it is a reminder that said content does indeed exist. You need only open up your Records of Eminence quest log for that.
Hypothetically speaking, getting a Jovian abjuration: body from the goblin wouldn't encourage me to go fight the monster that drops it - why spend millions on pop items or hours farming them when I already got what I wanted, so how exactly is my server/world better off in this case?
The views I expressed in this thread are mine and mine alone, I don't understand why you would think otherwise. Unless I'm mistaken, none of us here are officially representing larger groups of players.