Its not a matter of playstyles though- although I despise exploration like I do a bone marrow biopsy I do accept some freaks love doing it for some unfathomable reason. What I'm trying to get across is that the context its undertaken in is hostile, with a dystopian setting. You cannot escape that hostility, but you can control when and where you come across it.
Awareness is many things: ship builds, locations, skills, flight styles. Once you know what to look for or do, you realise the game is bombarding you with information that is very helpful in keeping you safe.
It is- which is where the early game shines. Its you learning how to run away and be anonymous is the myriad of systems until you are in some shape to brave more dangerous things.
It definitely could be harder for criminals, but at the same time it should be that by closing off legal avenues of play it opens up criminal routes. Done well it would separate out players slightly.
True, FD need to press play on the VCR again. Until then the 'day to day' narrative is what you do and how that interfaces with others. Some days its all smooth, other days its not.
What you need is stuff like this:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-npc-player-scan-spawns-an-atr-vessel.533172/
What it essentially does is strip a criminal of shields wherever they go
if they are scanned. Its skill based to evade, and clumsy people will suffer.
In an ideal world, people would co-operate for mutual benefit but the only players who get that are attackers currently. Because of solo and block its easier (and in some cases justified) to bypass that. With FCs its much easier to 'be your own bubble' in Open too.
With some extra attention the C+P would be much better- however even then it still requires input from the defender. Until people start being pro-active nothing will really change.