A GPU handles graphic generation, but relies on the CPU, (along with mobo and RAM to a lesser extent) to get the necessary info from RAM or the HD/SSD into the GPU. Things like planet / moon textures, ships, stations, weapon visual & sound effects and other needed info needs to be loaded or calculated before they can be displayed.
When you have multiple CMDR's in an instance, the CPU needs to do the above for the additional ships, plus handle the additional network traffic input and output, assign it appropriately in-game and update various info in real time, along with all other PC tasks in operation at that time. Anti-virus, firewall, Shadowplay, Firefox, NetFlix, BitTorrent, Windows updates, whatever you have active. It's also coordinating mouse, kb, HOTAS, track IR, VR information et al and getting it where it needs to go.
I disagree with the opinion that a CPU has no effect on gaming. The less your system is bottlenecked by hardware overall, the better. A decent multi-threaded CPU can keep up with the multitude of things it needs to do and prevent congestion. All major components (CPU, GPU, mobo, SSD/HD, network card, RAM, etc.) can have a negative impact if they are slow/old, not set up correctly, have bad drivers or firmware. The more headroom you have on the system, the better you will handle intense periods of activity.
Slapping an 800 HP engine into a car with a transmission that is rated for 250 HP won't get you far. All parts of a PC have to work together and any shortcomings in any one area will be felt in overall performance. I suspect a lot of peoples issues come from dated hardware, poorly set-up hardware and overstressing their systems beyond what they can comfortable handle. They then blame Frontier for the resulting issues instead of taking a hard look at their systems and their usage habits.
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