TBH I play on Reboot for differing reasons than those stated here. The shop means little to me, I rarely visit it and see no reason to, as unlike main servers everything has a time limit. My reason for playing on Reboot is the simplicity. There's no annoying % scrolling, there's no having to worry about having to buy NX only cubes for BONUS potentials to be end-game viable, and there's no having to reset your gear over and over because you didn't get the exact % scroll job you wanted on it. You can earn everything through in-game playtime. It's only a matter of how much you're willing to do.
Yes I miss the Player trading, but that's the entire point of Reboot, to be a server where your progress is marked by how much YOU want to do. I'm not the richest, in-fact my Kanna is sitting at 150 as a LS mule. I get all my mesos from daily stuff such as bossing. But social interaction has been actually quite nice for me. I've been in several parties on grinding maps between WG and even leveling characters, and the guilds are incredible on Reboot. Most of the time having the characters who have reached that 'end-game' status being MORE than willing to help those with carries of things like CRA, HMAG, and before the MIA of Gollux, Hellux.
It's just a matter of what you make of it, or work to make of it. Which is why I love it.
Editied to Add- As for the Botters and Hackers, every server has them. There's no creeping around that one. Except on Normal servers you have the displeasure of being spammed by them for 'BUY MESO CHEAP'. Which I do NOT miss what so ever.
The game is pay to win? Hmm that is disappointing that is off putting and makes me wonder if I should even bother with the game. I don't mind putting in some money but if the best gear is all pay to get that is a bit of a let down.
Come to Reboot, you're only limited by how much meso you're willing to farm. Meso = Power. NX is only really for cosmetics or pets, even then, you can get the blackheart pet for free in-game. As for gear, it's good to find a guild and then have them help you out, Guilds are Reboot's life blood! I reccomend my guild, Smile!