Veteran player here. This massive safe zone around the trader? Your safe carebear boat? All new shit meant to cater to casuals. The whole trade system is fucked. They tried to encourage ocean PvP with these changes but largely killed it off. Now most of your actual PvP in the world is boring. It can be fun but there's no stakes. The only real exception is fishing now. Fishing only thrives because commerce is in ruins. Commerce will be viable once Diamond Shores cargo runs become possible but I don't know how much longer it'll take for those bases to level up.

These cart blockades and using physics to scoop people off of boats is part of the precious sandbox element we're all here for. You can circumvent the blockades. If you can't get a seat or grab the ladder you shouldn't be on that boat. People aught to be relying more on their own ships by this point.

You can still enjoy the game as a casual player. There's all kinds of things to do in safe zones free of PvP and griefing.