you must not ditch the distress signal, thats an awesome feature. when i first learned about it, i jumped out of my seat.
as far as using it for PVE, that sounds like ambush, not exploit.
shame on you. people who work together use that function properly. thats just being smart about battle.
if youre worried about people farming with alts, fuck it dude. it doesnt matter how quickly people level up, they dont exactly "rely on" distress calls to max level in a day. people will always find a way of making it easier.
work on the alting problem, dont give cool features the chop!