As are other players - and not all players want the same things nor would they necessarily agree on what constitutes an improvement.
more succinctly, modes are simply not going to change. At all. So talking about open pve nonsense special sectors where pvp is required and elsewhere it's banned etc. is all pointless wastes of text. Fdev isn't going to do it.
You have a choice when you play .. you can choose to play in open where everyone is a potential enemy, you can choose to play in groups where you agree on some rules ....or you can play in solo. The only improvements that make any sense in suggesting would be mechanics that exist across those modes in equally useful manners.
we have some kind of escort mechanic that can be used by anyone on any mode but isn't god-like in power and by no means guarantees your safety..
we have removing human identifiers from the game altogether.
we were already given special starter systems for newbies to learn how to play in safety before blindly going out in the galaxy in open so really they have no excuse for their decisions. If you play in open, you have decided it's ok for you to be attacked by other humans. You dont get to dictate the rules of that engagement.
Ideas that improve the game improve them regardless of the mode you play in, not at the detriment of any. (that's why it's so hard to improve the game because the mode system is the single biggest compromise to all types of players the worst design indecision they could have made and guarantees that they will never make any single player type happy with nearly any decision)
I think removing the human specific identifiers would be the easiest and best choice. There's no reason for any mode or any role you have to differentiate a human ship from a npc ship. None at all. You want to be a pirate, be a pirate...do pirate things..fine. you want to be a psycho and just kill everyone, then kill everyone.. that's fine. you want to do anything ..you just do it. it shouldn't matter if your target is human or not. It shouldn't matter if your attacker is human or not. Unless they go out of their way to tell you, it has no place in the game to make any difference.