I think the issue lies within the player base more then anything.
1. Reports - In the current state gangs are resorting to OOC methods of dealing with a situation instead of attempting to handle something ICly. This mentality affects RP and makes interactions with gangs no fun because you're just worried about them reporting you after the situation.
2. Labs - The current state of labs is very promoting of poor quality RP. Every time you go labs you're getting robbed or clapped. It's very rare you can get an actual friendly interaction with someone where you just talk. This makes accessing the drug scene as a solo criminal very difficult as you just have gangs with 20+ people rolling labs robbing everyone they see.
3. Demand RP - People have AHK and scripts to just do /s HANDS OR DIE or /s PUT YOUR HANDS UP NOW and give you very little time to react to it before they start shooting. This RP makes very little sense to me as you have to comply to demands when there's no danger you can actively see, so you're stuck either complying and getting robbed for all your stuff or getting clapped from a bush.
4. Solo Crim - This was said in the initial post but solo crim RP right now is practically impossible to effectively do. If you try to do labs, you get rolled up on by 10 mans. Chop shops, you barely can make any money because of how much volume everything is to carry and how long it all takes to setup and disassemble, Stores / banks you just can't do without a whole team of people. ATMs - They're possible but you make absolute chump change compared to the risk.
Sure this is promoting more player interaction and that's good but not everyone wants to join a gang, some people want to be able to just do petty theft on the side while living a semi-legal lifestyle and I feel like currently it's hard to do that because of how criminal activities are setup.
Sure lower fines, old chops, old drug labs, etc could all help the state of crim RP but I think if the issues with the player base were addressed, criminal RP as a whole would be a lot more enjoyable and there would be less complains.
That's just my personal opinion, I'm loving this thread and people coming together to try and come up with good ideas.