Royals in Albion are not completely useless. First, they offer new players a gradual start (huge IP cap with no pvp -> big IP cap with flagged pvp but no looting -> IP cap with full loot flagged pvp -> no IP cap, unrestricted full loot pvp). Then, it's the only place from which you can get t2/t3 resources to craft higher tier mats. Royals have a much better enchant rate for t4 and t5 nodes and it's the only place where you can farm faction points. A more obscure thing would be inis mon (yellow zone), the only place that drops the bone marrow (to craft rageclaw).
The interesting thing is how the differences between zones in Albion are just loot values, IP cap and pvp rules. If you want to play Albion just for pve and gathering, you can play in the blue/yellow zone where you have all the pve content without pvp. You get low tier loot, but thanks to do IP cap and repair prices, it doesn't matter because you get exactly the kind of stuff you'd use and you never lose them. These being said, I never met anyone who decided to "live" in these zones.
In a way, if we want to compare Fractured to Albion, I'd say it's more like: Arboreus = blue + yellow + HCE; Syndesia = red zone; Tartaros = black zone. My main confusion is that Fractured devs say all those zones would drop top gear (as long as it is top gear stat-wise, it doesn't matter what it's crafted from). Imagine if SBI decided to introduce in blue/yellow zones enchanted t3 resources up to 3.8 (so, 3.5 = t8 and 3.8 = 8.3). This is exactly how I see the game balance in Fractured.