Except when you solo Voidwatch, you get 1/18 the total drops the mob had.

When you solo salvage, 100 alex drops, and can be shared 18 ways or go to 1 person.

When you do voidwatch it was intended that there be 18 pools of loot at the end, so by soloing it you have gone from 18 pools of loot down to 1 pool of loot, and while the drop rate per person is the same, the drop rate for the monster is effective 1/18th what it was in regards to the number of potential heavy metal plates entering the game. The fact you get 18 pools of loot in voidwatch is the single biggest reason they dont want to increase the drop rate.

And how does it penalize 18 people by having the drop rate scale from 1 to 18. Its not like 18 people are going out to do voidwatch at the moment, i can pick any mob that drops HMP and find an open camp and run kills for hours with no issues. Chances are, if someone tags along they are just going to be selling the HMP to me anyways. SO in the end the same total number of HMP would enter the world.