The push to grind for SP makes DUST feel more like "No Zombies Allowed" where you build your town simply to be able to build your town further. The further you get in the game the more you have to play to advance at the same rate because everything starts to cost more (like DUST's exponential skilling costs). The game designers "helpfully" offer ways to speed up that grind for real money. You even get to shoot zombies in the face with a short twitch mini-game to distract you from the realization that you are just grinding.

There is nothing to the game except the grind. That's it. That's the point.

So yes, enough people react positively to the Skinner Box that it's a game category all it's own. Farmville and all its clones are a huge and lucrative segment.

CCP has fully integrated the Skinner Box into DUST. I'd personally love it if they pulled it all out by the roots. I abhor grinding. I haven't gone so far as to AFK, but I'm very very close to doing so after losing half my weekend opportunity to play. Instead I've made my own fun by learning to roadkill with my LLAV. That annoys others, but it's the only way I can maintain my sanity while actively grinding. It's that or AFK. I can't fly my dropship for fun like I used to because it isn't fun anymore. Its handling has been nerfed to the point it is as much fun to drive as a Greyhound bus.

It would be a huge risk for CCP to go all passive though. Then the game would have to stand on its own. It would have to offer enough fun (challenge) to keep people coming back on its own merits.

EDIT:
Crap, I shouldn't have read this thread. The more I think about it the less tolerant I get.