In my opinion, it's a sales pitch regardless of the implications or presentation. Saying 'Hey, come over here if you want to have fun' is what you would call a 'soft sell', but it is a sell nonetheless.
The end result is that players are being rewarded for promoting their realm OOC, and thus those who play strictly IC are being punished for not being more coldly entrepreneurial. It places a higher value on the meta-game, which is something that ought to be discouraged in what is supposed to be primarily a role-playing game.
