But it doesn't give you a choice.
If you want to control a trade route, you cant, because people can just run it in solo.
I am not a ganker. I run from PvP, hide with pride.
I like it in my games because it adds excitement.
But having a solo mode you can escape to in order to move your loot or mine unassaulted, etc, and then your actions still affect others and there is nothing they can do about it? That's crap.
Keep the solo mode, but give it its own database, separate from Open play in every aspect.
There is no reason not to do this. Then solo players can be solo, and still enjoy the game, and those who want to compete with others have to do so in an environment with some risk.
I wonder how many ships it would take to "control" a single station, 24/7, taking into account the fact that instances will preclude any real possibility of blockading any site effectively?
Not all players like their games the same way - this thread is evidence of that simple fact.
How players choose to use the group switching feature is up to them. Your example assumes the worst. The option is available to everyone, therefore there is no advantage.
Sharing the single persistent galaxy between all online players, regardless of play mode, is a feature that has existed in the stated game design from the outset, as has group switching.
Frontier would need a compelling reason to make a change at this (very) late stage - I very much doubt that they would consider any of the offered examples as suitably persuasive.
We have been told both that Frontier are "making the game that we (Frontier) want to play" and that, as players, we are to "play the game how you want to".
Removing the group switching feature would allow one group of players to "play the game how you want to" by denying that same freedom to others - let's see what happens, shall we?