The spirit of the OP, though I do understand where it's coming from, suffers from a major flaw: It assumes that the higher risks in Open are based on forced conditions while in reality any halfway experienced solo player can happily do his business in Open with zero additional risk. You confuse your own preferences with forced conditions, but neither CGs nor PvP nor anything else in Elite is actually forced: Literally everything is optional. As a chessplayer I have some issues with this concept myself. From my point of view that's just very poor game design (doesn't mean I can't find my own way to still enjoy the game, which I do!). If you really believe you could change the game's inherently optional nature you haven't yet understand the game as a whole. It would rip the whole game apart until nothing's left and you would have to start from point zero designing a whole new game again.
You and me (to a certain degree) have to realize and to accept that there's no place for selfish concepts in this game, not at least something we could enforce to any other player. The game is actually a lot more casual then you try to depict it. All what's possibly "hardcore" in Elite is totally optional as well, but since this aspect seems the only one in which you're interested in, this seems mandatory to you. And that is how you play the game, at least you try.
Fact is: it's not, no matter if you or me or anyone else likes it or not. What we both seem to have a hard time to swallow is that the game has no goal. There's nothing to win, nothing to gain. All credits in the game only exist, if you think this through, as an end in itself. And this is the thick wall you can't break, cause it's the base (or lack of, if you want so) concept of the game.