I really don't get PvP-centred people. There are games specifically focused on that and I don't think Elite is one of them. I will be playing 'all' but, if it ends up a game where when you meet another player, they will be hell bent on competing with you, I might stop. With a game such as ED, I think it's an immersion breaker and it kills the idea of the game in the long run.
Has anyone played the Battlefield series here? The idea of the game and something heavily promoted by the devs was supposed to be playing the objective. Despite that the whole unlock mechanics was heavily focused on getting frags rather than capturing the objectives. In Bad Company 2, the said for instance that the Recon class is there for recon, spotting, providing support no sniping from a distance. The game ended up being a ghillie sniper fest regardless, because people felt it's more fun killing other players, than actually focusing on winning the match.
Another example - Falcon BMS. A proper realistic study-sim. Some time ago there was an event on Falcon Online called Battle for Balkans. I wanted to get into it, but a mate in my squad did some missions in the online battle and got discouraged quickly. The reason? Instead of doing strike missions and hitting strategic targets, most players focused on killing other players, which totally broke the immersion and the feeling of participating in a realistic conflict.
I just hope Elite has it's mechanics tuned in a way, so that the PvP aspect is not something the players go for in the first place. I would not want a situation when meeting another player instantly shifts the game to PvP regardless of the situation. I know some people want to compete against others, but if this becomes the focus of the game, I will not play 'all'. I don't mind fighting other players when it's justified by the situation (conflicts, pirates etc.), but I don't want to play space-quake. I have the proper Quake for that.