Exactly - the PvP element currently has a limited and arguably meaningful role in the contexts of "proper piracy" and "bounty hunting", but the problem is that the wider community of PvPers these days would in the main not consider that enough to satisfy their PvP wants and desires. The issue with changing things now in the way that some PvPers want it to be is that ED would be moved drastically away from the original vision for PvP.He’s just pointing out David Braben’s original vision that PVP is meant to be rare and meaningful. No need for shooting the messenger just because you wanted the game to be different.
Depends on what you are after - from a PvE perspective 2.x+ is where things started to really improve as a whole. Certain currently persistent changes (like the FSS) have had a negative impact for at least some but overall things have improved.I don't know if it was 2.0, but pre engineers was definately the sweetspot for me. Went downhill with (even more) unbalanced meaningless cluttered grind from there.
Engineers need not be considered a pointless grind, only the maximalist PvPers probably make that the case in the context of PvP. In the context of PvE, it is desirable and in some cases perhaps more than desirable but in the main can legitimately be considered to be far from being a pointless grind.