Actually I don't find it awesome at all and have the opposite point of view. To my mind this is a group of upstart thugs who for some reason think they have the right to deny other players of the game access to a system or systems. This is simply domination-style gameplay that is at odds with what many of us consider Elite to be about. The problem is when groups like this get an exaggerated opinion of their place in the galaxy and widen their supposed 'control' of the space they claim to 'own'. Some might say that the solution would be group up and fight against them, and that's fine (but not very practical with the current lack of effective grouping mechanisms), but that's still at odds with the intent that Elite is not about players controlling or owning space, sectors, systems, stations etc. From what I understand Eve provides for that style of game just fine and I for one don't want Elite to degenerate into this kind of crap (because once it starts and the genie is out of the bottle it will escalate and there'll be no going back). This is also why the mode switching is in place and such a good idea - groups like this mob can go shove their desires for domination because I'll just go right by them in solo or private group. IF I even visit the region they want to control.
And you can feel free to do that, but like it or not, there are plenty of us, including me, the "victim" in this case, who enjoy it immensely. You are right though, go to solo if you don't want this interaction. If you claim that it "ruins your immersion" you are full of it. There ABSOLUTELY would be systems controlled by groups like this if our world was set up this way, human conflict is part of the human experience, part of that, extending into a game, is a lot of fun for a whole lot of people.
The unfair part of it, in the current implementation, is that you can run to solo mode so as to avoid player driven politics, and can still affect that same world that is driven by player driven politics. That is extraordinarily "unfun," I agree.
