Questions from a newb to the franchise

Hey all, just recently took a closer look at the game after having seen it when it was first announced. At the time, I didn't put any faith in kickstarters but have had some good experiences fairly recently that got me interested in checking this game out. Anyways, I have a couple questions from what I've seen so far:

1. I saw some gameplay footage. I understand this game is in an (pre?)alpha state so I'm not expecting any kind of real polish at this point, but are the environment graphics going to stay the way they are? I personally like the art style for the characters they've got (reminds me of Warhammer Online), but the terrain I've seen looks very jarring.

2. I've seen a lot of commentary about how there will be no PVE. I've also seen statements that there WILL be PVE but there is no character progression from it. Is there any incentive to PVE play? Materials for crafting or trophies or anything of that nature?

Thanks in advance and I'm looking forward to watching the game develop!