RNG, baby, it's a thing. Instances can spawn with endless sidewinders, or more clippers than you can poke a multi-cannon at. I've been shooting since 2.4 dropped and myself and another corvette driver were struggling to bag the bad guys fast enough, in a Resource Extraction Site (Hazardous) - just Clippers and FGS and pythons for days; so it's still 100% situational.
So this