The developers are definitely not in it for the money. The developers are about creating a game that everyone can enjoy. Be it PvP, PvE, progress, mounts farming and so on. The developers have already played many MMO's themselves and want to do better what many MMO's do wrong or do not have.
Official statistics on the statements that Open PvP kills the genre I do not have, but in every MMO the majority does not like Open PvP, in every Facebook group you have this discussion, many simply reject it in principle.
The entire genre was created and started by Open World PvP. Stating that a majority of people don't like something when it literally formed the backbone of an entire genre is disingenuous at best. Stating social media content as the basis for a conclusion is like stating current news media for the basis of fact. Player friction is what makes an MMO an MMO. Blizzard and Sony have ripped the heart out of the genre and brainwashed young players into thinking their single player games are MMO's.
Remember folks...the devs have repeatedly stated they want to create an MMO to gets back to tradition and not the garbage we have today.