fair points, I also haven't played long enough to run into every situation you've mentioned so I'll take your word for it.
as far as competitive/casual goes I think the mission system is in such a bad gray middle ground in-between competitive and casual; for example I agree with you that casual players should be able to leave missions without punishment but I think the way people abuse it on a competitive level isn't okay. APB needs ranked and unranked game modes whenever they fix the threat system, so they can balance out different rules.. with the current population it'll just segregate our small community even further though.. so I guess it'll have to wait.