I hate to put it this way but alot of gamers seem to fall into a mentally retarted state when they play competitively.  When that happens to many of them forget to even be the least bit nice.  Not to mention that usually it is the ones who are getting smacked around the most that use such poor choices of words.

I say that it sounds intresting.  If you could scavenge a battle field and get new stuff and then swap parts from your mech that would be intresting.  Artifacts could be found either by raiding a science facility of some group and getting a new piece of gear, or you might stumble on one of those old star league stashes and get better equipment that way.

Either way there is potential.

As for RPG/ Leveling up would that basically translate to how well the pilot handled the mech and its systems?  Such as heat management, targeting, etc...