You need rewards for a ladder in this game, because that's how the game is designed. Sad to say, people generally don't do things "because they're fun," they do them "because I want the pony, and also it's fun." I mean, hell, how many folks do you know that engage in raidlogging, and actually *enjoy* the raids? Maybe they're fun at first, but people will be reclearing weekly for months on end because... I dunno, I guess they just want all the gear? The rewards. I know several people with the S rank hunt mounts - you think they actually enjoyed doing 1,000 of those damn hunts? Probably not, but they enjoy having the pupper.

Ladders in other games may not need rewards (but note that they still have "tiers" and profile portraits or skins or other rewards associated with doing well - it's not just a simple number), but they serve a very different kind of playerbase than the one we have here.

I don't see a "core issue" with adding new rewards to PvP series/vendor every major patch. We're constantly adding new items to the database with every single patch, Gold Saucer is up to 6 separate non-seasonal vendors (1-4, the rainmaker hairstyle vendor, and Kasumi) for the rewards they've added over time, etc. I don't see why it would be a problem for new housing items, mounts, and other things to be added to the series or vendors every major patch cycle.

As for currency, between wolf collars, wolf marks, and crystal trophies we should have the bases covered. Maybe just add a way to convert wolf marks to wolf collars, maybe more expensive than crystal trophies since crystal trophies are more limited.