About Armor Compensation and EANM / ANP

While inactive, active hardeners receive a 300 basis point boost to their resistance stat, so at level 1 they will provide 3%, level 2: 6%, level 3: 9%, and so on (it seems like going from 0 to 1 only gives you a 200 bp bonus). The compensation skills do nothing while the module is active (as the skill says).

Passive hardeners (resistance plating) receive a relative 5% boost per skill level, so with T1 plating it will be a total boost of 20% * 5% = 1% per skill level.

EvE is a purely PvP game with minimal PvE elements mixed in for money making. It is possible to sit in a station and just trade all day, or do planetary interaction or other extremely dull aspects of the game - but the game mostly revolves around spaceships fighting other spaceships.

There are missions with NPC pirates and space-rocks to fight (mine), however the missions aren't very deep and really there isn't enough content in PvE to enjoy. The game is PvP-oriented in that your internet space ship should be fighting other player's internet spaceships.

Think of it like chess. You can move your pieces around the board for no reason, but ultimately to play the game you need to attack your opponent. It just doesn't make sense to not play competitively.

edit: I would like to add that, there is some interesting PvE content such as group mining, corporation management and wormhole exploration - but all of these come with some PvP aspect to it.