I'd agree with you if there wasn't pvp in the game. What explanation is easier to buy? FD want a pve game and added pvp because they don't know how video games work, or they want both but don't know how to balance the two conflicting styles of gameplay. The latter one is incompetence but the former is incompetence to an unheard of level.
It's like saying I want to raise chickens but I'm going to allow wolves free access to the pen. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say, they want to raise both but can't figure out the locking mechanism on the cages.
How about they wanted money from everyone...and sold the game to everyone with promises that it would be everything to everyone in one package?
My expectations on this is that they expected people to understand that people that played in Open understood the nature of Open....in that 'anything could happen'....you punch your ticket and you takes your chances'. But since there is some lack of explicit warning, a lot of folks in this community feels it is somehow not what is supposed to occur. <shrug>
I still believe that if Open was supposed to be about players interacting cooperatively rather than antagonistically, the best way for this problem to be repaired would be the removal of direct PVP from the galaxy at large, once it is replaced by CQC.
You cannot balance PVP and PVE...the current attempts to do so have shown that it is impossible. The devs have created a system, currently, where there is no in game incentive to kill other players. You receive the same rewards for killing each other as you do for killing NPC's. Any PvP death is a loss to the winner and loser, with the perpetrator of the attack incurring larger losses due to bounties and fines. Honestly, there is no logical sense to PVP in this game and yet...it still exists...and the vast majority of the player base, as in any game that involves the mixing of PVE and PVP, dislikes the mixing of the play styles. PVP might be rare, in the vast scheme of the game, but it is meaningless (to many)...and has meaning (at least on a level of salty tears and cruelty) to others.
I would prefer removal of PVP over the creation of a new player flag that would basically create a PVE 'mode' as the splintering of the game even further would make the actual Open vs. (everyone can attack everyone from everywhere) problem even more exacerbated. 'Just' make the galaxy a pure co-op game and the only way to PVP is through the PVE system and the game will be on better footing.
The only other option is to accept what we have, learn to enjoy playing in Open with all the danger, damage, and hate it generates...and move on. You cannot make these two groups be happy in this game under these rules....since they are mutually exclusive...people will get their jollies by killing folks at SAG A*. And because of the rules of the game, we have to accept this will happen. We can complain bitterly...but this is the game design, good for some, bad for others. Since we have private groups and Solo...this is completely avoidable...and everyone has to come to grips with this and stop whining about 'why they should get special treatment'.
To be honest I agree a statement should be made when you hit the Open button.... 'Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter' should suffice.