Apart from natural-born masochists like myself, players actually aren't the best candidates for grunt work either.
Take that mire producing Black Mud in Red Ridge Town, for instance. It is only because there are still few players that no one has messed with it yet. Otherwise, when more people arrive, someone will inevitably tear it apart.
Baldy tried to prevent this by limiting what actions characters could take and by setting up safe zones, amongst other things.
But this might be underestimating the players' intelligence a bit. Even if they can't do it directly, there are many ways they can cause destruction indirectly.
It's not that the players are inherently bad, though there are indeed such people, but most are just blindly messing around out of curiosity.
When people arrive in a new area and face new rules, they subconsciously want to explore the boundaries. This is actually a way for players to learn and adapt to new roles.
