No no, I'm just explaining why no one would reasonably expect pirates with military equipment in deep space. Normally, considering the amount of systems, the chance of running into someone is so infinitesimal that trying to target explorers as a pirate is mind numbingly boring because you'd probably never bump into anyone.

Therefore it is a reasonable and logical decision to not prepare for combat; the chance of randomly meeting a pirate is theoretically and empirically minute.

However, the issue now is not that folks think exploring is safe. It's that someone for some bizarre reason thought it would be fun to spend 20 hours flying to Sag* and then killing one explorer for no other gain that shits and giggles. Seriously, why? Zero gain in any way. It only worked in that one system, and it only worked once. Sure it's a game changer that there now seems to exist folks who are willing to sink 20 hours into a game to ruin 10 hours of someone else's time. But it's all a big meh really because it won't work again. Good luck finding another explorer there in open for a while. And good luck meeting anyone else anywhere else in the black.

No, it was and is logical to not expect combat in the black. It was and is certified weird to go so far out of your way for one literally pointless kill.

As for trading, not sure what that has to do with anything, lol. Of course traders should expect pirates because pirates know where to expect traders.

The thing with explorers has just historically and consistently been that there's only one place to know where to expect them and no one has (until now) had the pathetic persistence to jump 20 hours of systems for one easy kill of an unarmed ship. Seriously, how can that be good use of your life, let alone gaming time?!