Counterstrike was released 18 years ago.
Battlefield 1942 was released 16 years ago.
The first Call of Duty was released 15 years ago.
Having fun shooting at other players online is hardly "new".
Mixing PvP and PvE gameplay in a persistent Open world environment mostly is... those particular games are specifically targeted at PvP as was some older PvP-focused (where multiplayer aspect is concerned) games (Quake Arena, Unreal Tournament) that I have enjoyed, ED is not.
You can try and claim there is little difference in PvP attitudes and behaviours now to those of 20+yrs ago but you would be wrong IMO/IME - things have gotten ALOT worse (esp. over the past 15 years or so) and mostly due to a growth in ganker/griefer mentalities and certain overly-liberal/apologist attitudes over them.
I accept that PvP is part of ED and do not specifically object to it, but there are limits to what is (and perhaps should be) considered acceptable behaviour in game. ED is not a fragfest title and IMO should never have parts of the Open world that are specifically targeted at exclusive (or even mostly exclusive) Open World PvP either.
If there were PvP Death Match like POIs (with local re-spawning bases, opt-ins and perhaps varying participation limits - e.g. unrestricted, no engineering, specific ship class exclusions/requirements, module quantity restrictions) based around CZ mechanics then that would not be too problematic IMO, but there should not be any areas in the general Open World where habitual ganking or griefing type behaviours is deemed acceptable and part of the course.
Another option might be to add station based PvP/PvE challenge boards which anyone could participate in regardless of the mode they are playing in, melding both mechanics with seamlessly with game lore would be the challenge that FD would have to deal with.
The C&P system changes in 3.0 may help mitigate ganking a bit and anarchy/lawless areas will always carry a bit of a safety warning but there are still limits to PvP gameplay that are in alignment with the general spirit of ED - that does not include fragfest type gaming in the Open World.