I vote for workbench... why not? Why should only gangs have those? Not everyone is team-player and this will give better chance to loners...
Why do you force people to enter cities? What's the point if they only need workbench at the time?
Yeah, what a great MMORPG when everyone sits in their cave and only "interacts" with other people by shooting 'em.
Ever been to NCR? (...)
On second thought if you like danger why dont you go carrying all your caps in a blue suit while yelling "I have 10k caps on me and no guns or armor. Catch me if you can"? would that not be exciting enough?