I hope this is sarcasm
I hate A-B trading. So much so that I haven't bothered since I had a T-6 and only a handful of shekels to my name. I haven't even done Robigo runs either. I'm a combat pilot who occasionally moonlights as an explorer.
Unfortunately there is nothing particularly rewarding about combat missions, nor is there anything challenging about them either. Killing pilots at RES sites is fun but not especially difficult and unless you are signed up to one of the OP PP factions it isn't even in the same ballpark as bulk trading or shadow deliveries.
Yes. I edited it a bit so it might be clearer. Too many people here complaining stuff is "too hard" or takes "too long".
If you don't use the mode switching to make ranking f.ex. a grind, it is no grind. I tried 17 Draconis .. 15 minutes and I was gone. I much prefer to have a good mix of some charity + lots of other missions so I have a reason to actually fly my ship (ranking is faster that way, too ;D ).
Bout the difficulty.. not really how it should be. My first assasination mission was a blast. Against a clipper and 2 Viper escort and I had a (almost exclusively mission financed) cobra.
Made it out nearly dead, but managed to assasinate the target in the clipper. Had to highwake with those 2 vipers on my tail. Did feel really like a hit&run assasinate mission - almost too hard for unexperienced me.
Nowadays with a much better ship and more experience, I barely bother. Not really that hard if I get confronted with a wing, bad pay .. I might do them for a change as rank-up missions or something, because at least it feels a bit more combaty than "fetch xy for your lieutenant", but the thrill of this first mission is gone.
Worse with rescue missions. Usually they don't work.

I'd like to play some sort of A-Team dude who does lots of "humanitarian" missions like rescue and supply, but with the current mission RNG .. not feasible.