Edit: I add, this is a question/debate not a statement of my own intent. I'll be more succinct . When little to no trill, reward, even challenge is in PVE combat the challenge etc may be sort via PVP. Is this by design? Why is PVE combat discouraged in Elite? Is this even a factor?
Not all players are seeking the "thrill" of combat - and, as two of the paths to Elite don't require the player to fire a shot in combat, Frontier must be aware that not all players want to engage in combat and don't force players to engage in it.
The thing is, the combat-averse nature of some players means there's an outcry even when
optional content is added that actually challenges wings of players. AX combat has (thankfully) mostly avoided this fate, so thargoids remain a challenge and it's generally accepted that no, your average joe
shouldn't be able to solo a hydra in a stock ship. AXCZs have disappeared into the aether though - they were the content that came to players (and bizarrely were
most accessible to players, as you can largely ignore the interceptors and just kill scouts) but they're gone. Otherwise, if you want AX content, you have to go out of your way to look for it and find it, which puts it out of the reach of the "I'll just do whatever's on the mission boards and expect to be able to breeze through it with my invinciboat" brigade.
See the people that complain about spec ops being "OP". Rather than just going and doing a low-intensity zone where they won't have to actually face them, they want them nerfed/removed so that
nobody gets to encounter them. Same with the people complaining about wing assassinations to get
them nerfed. There have been several attempts in the game's history to add
optional content that actually challenges skilled pilots (or mediocre pilots in engineered ships) and every time there's an outcry to tone it down because apparently just not participating in that content until you're ready for it isn't an option.
I
wish there was something out there, other than AX combat, that came
close to the sort of engagement you could get out of a PvP scrap. Hell, even some
actually challenging PvE content that I didn't have to artificially restrict myself by going "haha I'm gonna take on this stack of pirate lords with a courier instead of my krait or 'vette" would be nice.
Completely separate of the PvP discussion, I'm a little tired of "not all players want this, therefore nobody should have it".