Can you automate certain processes? Like say, I'm a baker and most of the community's bread comes from me but I won't be playing for the next few days. Can I automate the process so that my character still makes bread even without my input?
This is pay-to-play right? What happens if my baker suddenly stops baking bread for the community?
That's the entire idea. Your character is always in the game world, and as such, scripts will be needed to make sure you're getting food, doing things, or whatever. We encourage players to write their own scripts, but a slew of scripts will be available at the start of the game for everyone to use. At any point in the game, you can have every monster character you have running scripts, as well as your human character.
They "wouldn't care" if their main objective is to annoy other players. Your assumption is that people who are playing the game are doing so because they want to play the game. Sadly, many people play a game (yes, even a pay to play one - there are far too many people with disposable income and nothing better to do with their lives) simply because they like the opportunity to cause trouble for other real-life people. They're willing to put in a certain amount of time and effort to get to a point where they're able to do that. And if you get an entire group of people willing to put in that effort together so that they can exert as much influence on the game world as possible, which might include surrounding every starting point with areas that a new player can't access due to their laws, they can ruin the entire world for everyone.
To be honest, I really can't see why we are the ones to decide who is griefing, and who is playing the game the way they want. If a person wants to be a mass murderer, that's on them. If they are seriously destroying the game for the population, we could always toss the ban stick. Again, what defines a "griefer"? How do we know who is griefing, and who is taking a course of action they simply choose to? It opens up a nasty can of worms when the devs step in to police what is supposed to be a community driven sandbox.
Allowing the community to remove these players wouldn't work, either. It would promote a clique mentality of "we don't like you, and so you're banned". Total disaster.
I understand your points about permadeath, but the entire system is designed to provide consequences to actions, not to reward poor choices. Also, you seem to be really concerned about griefing - what do you think would happen if a griefer has "nothing to lose"? They just go right back to griefing after respawning or whatever other typical system is in place.
As for cliques ruling the world - there is a huge difference from having the option of interacting with a cooperative group, and them deciding if you can even play the game at all. Trading influence and setting laws is one thing - allowing them to dictate who is a griefer, who is right, who is wrong, isn't something we're shooting for here.
At the end of the day, this MMO isn't like others. And it is more "hardcore" than others. Some players simply won't want to lose their skills when they die. The only advice I can give is - protect yourself, and try to put yourself in your character's position. Be intelligent about choices, and survive.