I think very generally speaking ganking is the single most divisive issue in Elite. Based on the experience of myself and others, I think one side falls more easily into problematic behavior and views than the other, especially when you consider the reality of the game Frontier has made.
My side, the ganker/troublemaker/outlaw side, generally keeps things in game. We realize this is all for fun and that none of it really matters. It's leisure. You wasted your time, so to speak, the moment you booted up the program. Can we be jerks to other players? Sure. But it ultimately doesn't rise far above trash talk between a couple of teams on the field of sport. In hockey, they call this "chirping." Other sports have their own slang.
As far as the shenanigans in game it's all leisure and no harm ever really comes to anyone. Your pretend spaceship gets blown up, and even if it's completely one sided and you have no chance to escape, no actual harm comes to you the player behind the monitor. You're fine. You're OK. You agreed to play the game. You agreed to play in Open. These are the things that happen in Open. Life goes on.
Which brings me to why the other side, the anti-ganker side, are so troubling.
Elite is the way it is. It's been this way for nearly six years. SIX. We've been going round and round in circles about ganking this and ganking that and yet here we are asking if the questions have all been answered. Well, if you're a long time Elite player and haven't figured out the score with Elite I honestly don't know what to say to you. You must enjoy hitting your head against a brick wall, especially when you've got the man behind the original vision giggling about causing trouble for other people as a core gameplay loop. As far as new people are concerned, the game isn't exactly shy about what's going on. It's on you to figure it out.
Basically what I'm trying to say is one side accepts the game as it is and plays it on its terms. My side. The other side does not and to their endless discredit takes this perceived slight against their person to any sympathetic ear they can find across the breadth of the entire Elite community.
As I've said before: complaing about ganking adds zero hit points to your ship health pool.
Choose your mode. Prepare accordingly. Everything else is rubbish.
True, but it's a lot easier to accept the game as it is when it favours your playstyle. That's the crux of the matter Phisto, of course you're happy with it, you like blowing crap up!!! But for others that's not so good......just try and squeeze a little bit oif empathy for the other sides views?