You're not the first to think of that solution. The problem is, that it leads to an increase in zombie characters--they move and follow orders, but don't really do any roleplaying. It's a "quantity" solution, when what we really want is a "quality" solution.
I believe in the current players to be quality players, mostly.
And if you check now realms, that what you say is already often the case, so it wouldn't really make a difference.
With an exception to the new players of course, who could become quality players much easier.
