That's crap, all the things you listed are PVE, purely because they have been categorised as being PVE since the inception of mmo's. The fact that you are competing with other players does not matter, nor does it stop it being PVE. 
 :PS, eve being a hardcore PVP game(or not) had little to do with it winning the award on MMORPG.com, the editors lack of intelligence, and the militantism/fanboyism of your average eve forumite, had a lot more to do with it. 
 :PPS, can you name any PVE MMOG that doesnt feature players competing in trading/npc hunting/etc? Or are you now saying that there's no such thing as PVE content, in any MMOG?