Ouch, sorry to hear some GSCH had such a hard time. The EVE player base is a cutthroat crowd, no doubt about it. I have mixed feelings about it, thus the on-again then off-again relationship I've had with the game over the years. And while I do highly recommend it to anyone who loves the sci-fi genre, I always make sure to give the whole "compulsory PVP" speech to everyone before they dive in so they know what to expect. It really boils down to CCP's stance on PvP. Rampant ganking, even in the "safe zones" is perfectly acceptable to the developers as is corporate espionage and theft. This has led to a lot of the nicer folk leaving after being victimized one too many times. The remaining player base is well... what's left after the majority of the mature player base evaporated.
What keeps me coming back is the game's great depth, complexity, player driven economy, and the ever expanding list of things to do. The fact that there is serious financial loss to death (or just losing one's ship), makes exploring the depths of null-sec or wormhole space an edge-of-your-seat type of experience that cannot be found in most MMOs.
As far as avoiding the gankers and the corporate spies/infiltrators, there are methods to limit your exposure. I'm not worried about anyone seeing our information here and infiltrating the Shadow Agents. I agree you can't play the 100% GSCH way but that's just the nature of the environment in EVE. You have to control your risks and, as much as I hate to say it, treat everyone with a certain level of suspicion. But even with that, there are ways to spread the GSCH method in New Eden. Look how well the Brave Collective Alliance has done, or especially the Curatores Veritatis Alliance - one of the oldest and friendliest alliances in EVE.