i mention financial gain as that seems to be a common way to differentiate a fair game pirate from a griefer. i do not believe that is the case, i do not believe financial gain has anything to do with it.You mentioned financial gain as the most common motive for PVPer but I have never seen that as being the case. Using EVE as an example what financial gain is there in blowing up some high sec players ultra rare ship that he foolishly took out for a test drive? What financial gain is there in tricking newbie players with can flipping? None it's done for no other purpose than ruining another players day.
Or in more conventional MMORPG's like ,EQ2 or WOW ,where is the financial gain in killing and camping players? Again there isn't any. It's just to bully other players.
as for your 2 eve examples, those are both examples from safe space. what we have in elite open mode is more akin to low sec and null sec (low = faction space, null = anarchy). if a hauler is caught 15KM off a gate in low sec you'd not say it's griefing is some other players blew it up, you'd say it was a silly mistake on the haulers part. yet you know the pvpers would not be able to turn much profit from the cargo. they get more cash from shooting bigger ships with better modules on than they would from a hauler
so i think you have things in the wrong context. you need to see elite open play as low sec or worse because that is how the game mechanics compare.
your eve examples would be better mapped to group play where a griefer has joined a coop group just to have a target rich environment.
eve is quite unique in that even in safe space you can pull the trigger, but there is a very large difference between the large PvP communities in low sec and null sec to the players that prey on newbies in empire.
what the elite community seems to be struggling to realise is the pvp community does not automatically mean they are there to cause others harm. that is what i wish to address.