Why are Harvester runs played like pure PvP lobbies?

I want to be clear first: I like PvP in Arc Raiders. In normal runs, fighting other players is completely fine and part of the game.

But Harvester (Queen) runs feel completely different — and not in a good way. The whole purpose of these lobbies is supposed to be killing the Queen together, yet it often turns into nonstop player hunting.

At the start of the game, I even brought two full stacks of defibrillators specifically to revive downed players and help the lobby succeed. Yet despite that, the experience quickly turns hostile.

I’ve honestly reached a point where I only queue Harvester runs with a free loadout because I’m tired of losing decent gear to random squads playing extremely aggressively. I usually don’t shoot first and only fight back when I’m attacked. Because of that, it’s especially frustrating to end up in what basically feels like PvP-only lobbies when I’m just trying to play the objective.

As a comparison, a lot of TTT servers in Garry’s Mod solved a similar problem years ago. In TTT, if an Innocent shoots or kills another Innocent, they lose karma and deal less damage in future rounds. The important part is that with addons like Better Karma, the game tracks who actually shot first, so players who are only defending themselves aren’t punished. Something like that could maybe help Arc Raiders avoid pushing peaceful players into PvP-focused lobbies for simply trying to survive.

Is there some mechanic or incentive that pushes people to treat Harvester runs like PvP deathmatches? Or is this just the current state of the playerbase?

I’m genuinely curious how others feel about this.