Ships & Modules

I don't care about efficiency. But things like cap stability or auto-aggressing drone ratting is lazy and less engaging gameplay. That is what turns PvE into a grind in the first place.

My suggestion is usually...run whatever is the bare minimum to finish the mission. Run a BC or HAC or something smaller, that requires playing the game. You might have to actually fly the ship, pay attention to your cap/tank/etc, even....dread...warp out on occasion. All these things slow down isk printing, but actually mean playing the game rather than watching TV while your wallet blinks every 20 minutes.

It's also more useful to go out and experiment and learn than just asking on the forums what everyone else flies. Any T1 BS with a decent T2 tank will survive high sec PvE, so choosing one over another is just personal preference. There is no magic 'win' ship or fitting since pretty much anything will do...some just do it faster/easier. Two things that should be the opposite of what you're looking for in challenging or interesting gameplay.

A better question is what two or three ships would work well in a team to do any given content?...and find friends to bring along. Learn to build specialist ships and learn to fly specialist roles. PvE like mission running really should be training for PvP fleet operations instead of forever solo grinding to print isk. But somewhere players completely lost that concept, and it's why there is such a huge gulf between PvE and PvP.
Use PvE to learn, practice, and play this massively multiplayer game with other people. Take turns being the FC and calling targets, broadcasting for reps, building a small fleet comp and fitting for specific roles. All of a sudden you are playing a game rather than AFKing a grind.

None of that is what the OP asked, it's just a suggestion to make Eve's PvE more than a chore where easiest/fastest is the goal.

I respect your 'strong opinion', and everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

I'm not saying you are one of those people, but there is a bit of contradiction for many EVE players when they talk about 'efficiency'.

There are people who enjoy PvP in cheap T1 frigates and get great kills with them, and there are people who fly super blings with great skills and do fantastic fights. When it comes to PVP, most PVPers talk about 'fun' rather than efficiency. People talk about flying a specific fit/ship for 'lulz', or do something silly and laugh about it. Of course, there are vets who always knows and brings the best ship/fit for the job, but even those 'efficient' PvPers like to mess around with unusual/inefficient stuff from time to time. I don't know any serious PVPers who don't enjoy 'messing around'. Even those who care so much about KB efficiency lots of them have alt toons for lulz.

Then there is talk about PVE, such as missions, and suddenly efficiency becomes an absolute quality. The general underlying assumption/viewpoint is that PVE in EVE is not enjoyable, so it should be done as efficiently as possible to get the ISK needed and do something else that is fun, like PVP or whatever.

I do share the view that PVE in EVE is very lacking in many ways and it's not the most enjoyable aspect of the game. But people are different and some people do enjoy it - and if they enjoy doing it and they are having lulz in their L4 missions, then efficiency argument is totally irrelevant.

I also like to do my best in what I do generally, both in game and IRL, but if the purpose of playing a game is to get 'fun' out of it, then surely the best I can do in that game is to get most fun out of it, not to be most proficient/efficient in that game - especially if that game is a sandbox game. :p

I understand you better now I think hehe, but it's a bit strange to have an opinion on how much 'fun' someone is having. It's alright to have any opinion on anything, but it's totally irrelevant, as in, I could have opinion on how much fun you are having, but that doesn't matter at all because what matters how much fun YOU feel you are having. I mean I could suggest you mine 1b units of veldspar and 'do it in a kestrel' because I have strong opinion that it will be fun, but you could just say 'no' and that would be it. ;)