They should have known the ganking was going to happen, so what they should have done was have a dozen other devs hanging around ready for when the ganking started.
Just imagine, a few of the attackers are hanging around the station and suddenly 10 devs drop in at the station and start hammering the PvPers. I think the PvPers might actually have appreciated such a move.
As for a better crime and punishment system, i wonder how many PvPers would actually really really enjoy that. Because if done right, it would effectively make anything except low sec no-go zones for them.
And then the entire event would be about the PVP encounter at the station not the team vs team at the CZ. And why is it bad that PVP'ers need to stay at the low sec areas? It would basically split the open area into easy PVP areas and tough PVP areas. I don't think that would be a bad idea to be honest. As things are right now, there is no where to hide for anyone in a non combat ship from pvp except for groups or solo, basically removing any content that requires open (like the events that lead to the crashed ship).