All punishments for anything have always been ship destruction. This is an intended design feature and has been from the very beginning, hence the voices inside stations threatening destruction at the most minor of slights. Don't wanna get blown up? Don't get a fine, or at the very least, pay it before you undock.
it's either predictable, or random. You can't have both, they are mutually exclusive. Random =/= predictable.
Why? The client might know but why should you? To make it easier? You want easy mode, Hello Kitty Online is thataway --->> Over here, in Elite: Dangerous, you're given information on a threat but they don't know where it is. You're getting paid for both finding and destroying it, understand? This isn't COD where you get a waypoint holding your hand every step of the way.
As for salvage.... wth? How would anyone know you stumbled across their lost cargo in the middle of some random point in space they're probably nowhere near in order to request it back?
I have a question for you - how many games like this, and/or RPGs, have you developed this year?
You had me until the last bit you said. You can criticize something without doing it yourself.
I agree wholeheartedly with everything else you said though.