The problem is that there isn't really a way to programmatically identify and penalise such actions without also penalising completely legitimate gameplay.
For instance - I find a miner, scan them. They refuse to drop any loot, and when I hatchbreak them, they run. So I pulverise them. As you might expect a pirate to do.
They're a harmless asp, I'm an elite cutter. Is that ganking or griefing? It wasn't a "for no reason" kill, they ran from a pirate.
How does the game distinguish that from just diving on someone and shooting the hell out of them for no reason at all?
Did I scan them? Message them? Fire hatchbreakers? Sure, that's a thing that pirates do but random gankers don't. But if you put those into the game as criteria to make it "legitimate combat", then all that'll happen is gankers will strap manifest scanners and a limpet controller onto their gankboats. Scan, fire literally anything into chat, fire a hatchbeaker, open fire.
What are you going to do? As soon as you impose restrictions on it like "the scan has to be complete", then how are pirates supposed to deal with people that boost as soon as a scan is detected, considering that not everyone has access to fast scanners? You have to wait 10 seconds before you can attack? I pop a sink, haha, now you can't resolve me as a target so if you try to stop me running you get flagged as a filthy ganker.
These are the sorts of things that always come up in these discussions, because most of the things people talk aboout in terms of punishing "griefers" end up devolving into "punish anyone who doesn't play the game as purely pve".
Yeah it's completely impossible. Having non lethal freezing weapons harpoons or tractor beams to allow piracy like the kind of scenario you describe... It would be drag effect outcry all over again.