That's where you go to farm materials. You can fit all turrets. They drop the same materials as the ones in a high/haz RES, but they're rather easier to kill. You can take some cargo to make them come to you, while you sit stationary hoovering up all the materials they drop, and the turrets deal with the continuous queue of wanted ships willing to donate their materials.
I don't know when they changed because a few years ago there was never much to kill there. Now you get the same spawns as a high RES, but the ranks and fighting ability of the ships there are much lower.