Yes you see the ones around you in relative close "browser space". But try to discover a little yellow dot 8000 LY away - good luck. Try to find it 20,000LY away - good luck. Deep space explorers are targeting things from very long distance and these little yellow dots do not show unless you were to browser your browser way out there which takes a lot of time and is hit/miss. The idea is that an explorer may want to look for a FC in time of need or for UC out in deep space that might be 8-10 LY or more from them.In the galaxy map there is a distinct filter at the end of the filters list (iirc it is named Carriers)
I tested that last night on pc and it worked properly (it worked in beta1 too) - all the systems that had at least a carrier were lit Yellow