Did I pick the wrong server or..?

[Bixby]

Further question: Can anyone link to me some information as to what reporting the tells to the support desk actually does? If the RMT is all p2p how is SE catching/dealing with em? Burn em all I say!

This is what reporting them does. These reports come out once a week. You can find them in the Notices section of the Lodestone.

You'll never hear back from them on RMT reports, so don't expect to get confirmation of a ban or anything. But if they don't get reported, it takes that much longer for them to get caught and dealt with.

[Niwashi]

Besides, anyone that isn't an RMT that sends you a tell is usually not worth replying to anyway. If you want to talk to your friends, there are linkshells.

Tells aren't just for your friends. They're for anyone you want to interact with. For instance, just the other day I died in a region far from my home point, so I asked in /shout if there was anyone around who could Raise me. The guy who agreed to do so asked in a /tell for some further specifics to help him find me. It wasn't someone I know or am in a linkshell with, just someone who was around when I needed him, had a Raise spell available, and had time to help out a random stranger (me). That's not the sort of interaction you want to disable.