Pug minis are evil in a game that was designed around teamwork and class synergies.
Premades stomping pugs was pretty evil too mind you, but how do you expect people to learn pvp if they can't even play with just one friend? They might learn eventually but it will most likely take them a long time and lot of grief (if they don't give up).
Open-world could be a solution but too many people prefer to sit in Khemi and sign up for pug minis instead, even during pvp festival weeks. The low population is definitely part to blame for this as well, I mean if we had more players overall we'd have more pug minis (the solo MMO player is a reality) BUT also more open-world so the situation might be a lot more bearable.