"NEZs being useless" doesnt equal to there is no NEZ in the game, since the definition of NEZ has nothing to do with how people can stay alive in NEZ with the help of countermeasures. And I find it hard to agree with "just pop a couple chaff and you're safe", IMHO it is harder than that. Maybe u have some special skills can be shared?
About the whole point of staying the hell out of the enemy's NEZ, I dont know about other players, but I do try to keep some seperation between the threat and me. And from my online experience, very few targets get into the NEZ of my AIM-120, some of my enemy are dead before they get there, some of them turn and outrun my missiles after they fire theirs. The point is that online I havent seen many violation of the rule of staying out of NEZ, some players do not intend to break that rule, many players are dead before they can do it.