Been there, done that. I often stop at Todd's to adjust settings on the multicannons. I'll be back there next time I am in the Python and I remember to go, because the specials on the multicannons are mismatched and one of them is rather useless to me (smart rounds). I'm skilled enough with my trigger finger that I can not fire on targets that I am not wanting to hit.
Last week I bought a brand new Dolphin straight from the aquarium and took it around all the usual engineers after buying A-rated modules. Nobody was at Felicity Farseer, nobody at Lei Chung, nobody at Liz Ryder, nobody at Ram Tah, nobody at The Dweller, nobody at Professor Palin. I then engineered to my hearts content, even leaving Palin and stopping off at Obsidian Orbital to grab another set of thrusters before returning and engineering those too. I haven't unlocked Selene Jean yet - perhaps she will have more people hanging around in their heavily armoured starships. Don't expect anyone at Broo Tarquin's (whom I also have not unlocked) because gankers don't seem to like lasers, do they?
Wait, I'm wrong. There was an AspX landed in the hangar at Felicity's. There. I met one other CMDR actually at an engineer, perhaps I may have encountered one or two others on the way in. Most combat worthy ship I encountered during that round was a FAS heading in the other direction, but I had only just from fuel scooping so I have no idea if they were hanging out at an engineer's place. They left the system shortly after I arrived. Anyway, I still watch my scanner carefully for hollow icons but it's more a formality out of habit now as opposed to being anything useful.