I've met some amazing people and have had some pretty fun, spontaneous encounters in open too. Just because the game isn't bribing you with credit bonuses or the like doesn't mean that there's "no advantage" to open.
Trust me: after the three-hundredth hour or so in this game, flying with people you know well is what makes Elite worth playing.
Did I ever mention credits as rewards for playing open? I don't think so. When I say, that there are no advantages in playing open, I mean fun. This is the point of playing, isn't it?
And to have to regard every other player I meet somewhere as an potential enemy, without any reason, who could attack me, without any reason, destroy my progress, without any reason to do so - is just not my idea of fun. Sure, there are players who will never do this, who will want to do their own thing or will have a friendly chat. Maybe this is even the majority. But this does not help, if I have to regard everyone as an enemy. The gankers behave like dumb monsters in a game, only you cannot differentiate them from the rest until it is too late. Trust in fellow players is completely destroyed by this, even if you have a friendly chat, and answer friend requests it could be a ganker, who after winning your trust destroys you, and this has happened too. Why would I have fun meeting other players, if literally every one - even a 'friend' - could attack me without reason or warning? NPCs may be aggressive and outright nasty, but you know why, there are reasons they attack you.
Combine this with engineering, so either you crossed the huge grind walls to engineer your ships totally and completely, or you cannot compete. And even if I manage to flee every time this is no fun for me. It is not an accomplishment to fight off a silly, damaging and badly implemented game mechanic. Better to avoid it completely. It is just not entertaining. Ganker ships are engineered in a way they are unbeatable even by a good ship, not an explorer 'paper flyer'. They will destroy a good A rated ship in seconds, there are a lot of YT videos and reports here. So either you fly around with a pure combat ship engineered to the gills, or you are meat. And permanently fleeing from idiots is not my idea of gaming fun.
And this is what I meant with advantages. Credits are thrown at you in astonishing rates by the game. So much credits, that they are unusable to 'regulate' things like engineering, so that they were forced to implement a secondary 'currency', namely the materials. But even if it were much easier and faster to find materials this would not be enough to bring me to open.
But as I said - this is IMHO. YMMV...
