The point, as you correctly said, is that solo players can accomplish CG and PP without the danger of PVP.
Without direct PvP, yeah. And many players prefer to play that way, with full control over when and how they can be engaged in PvP.
Which was a part of the sales pitch, mind; that we would be able to choose who we play with, everyone, just a select group, or even solo, with the ability to freely switch between those options.
So, what you see as an issue is, in truth, a feature intentionally added by Frontier. For many a really important feature, in some cases absolutely essential for the player to even enjoy the game in the first place. If Frontier wants to remove that feature, they better be prepared for many complaints, and likely even lawsuits for false advertisement; AFAIK they did get a few letters before action when they removed the offline mode, and that was actually done before launch (though they folded in all such cases, so it didn't get to the courts).