A whole lot of waffle, right there. And
still failing to understand the basic point that: challenge
is only ever personal. You seem to be confusing what you think about your own ideas, your own measures, your own values and your own perceptions of the game mechanics with some kind of 'fact' around any of it. None of that's actually relevant. The " It presents the greatest challenge to your completion of any gameplay loop because it is the most likely to result in your ship's destruction" is one of the most hilariously silly things I've ever read.
I get that you might think you're 'dismantling criticisms' and imagine I'm keeping score in some weird debating society, but as you pointed out (but probably missed the point of) - it's a forum, context is important - and this is a thread that asked for views from people who don't PvP/Gank about
what they get out of open.
If, in response to their answers - you blather on and try to devalue things they think are challenging as just 'personal', or stuff anybody could do, etc - and go on about how they can only experience real, objective, non-personal challenge (whatever the hell that's supposed to mean) by following your suggestions....yup....that's your hubris at play, right there.
I'll take one last stab at trying to help you see this, although I realise it's probably futile.
If the only thing lacking in the Hauler example is motivation; then the challenge lies in developing the motivation to do it. This is why you can't do it. For those who do - they've done something you couldn't. They win the galactic circumnavigation achieve you can't. The fact that there are haulers, and a galaxy, and it's possible mean that this challenge is equally there - by design.
Anyone
can't do it, just for different reasons other than the ones you put so much stock in. It might not require what you term knowledge or skill, but it demands other things.
The things you think are important are as irrelevant to that long-distance traveller as their challenge is to you. Whether that's meaningful to you is irrelevant - their sense of challenge is equal to yours, and their sense of achievement if they do it equally so. I'm not devaluing the challenge of PvP by saying so. Different strokes for different folks.
I'm not actually trying to 'compete' with you here in arguments. It's good you're off to bed really. That way you can stop making yourself look any more of a misguided blowhard