Yup it certainly is garbage, bounties have to be payed by the player on death -at a rate of 1.5X the amount- if returned to a station that is allied to the faction that placed the bounty or they go dormant and are just sitting waiting to be reawakened on committing crimes. You don't have any fines/bounties auto payed off like some people seem to think you do...
Nice!, I was unaware there there was persistence of the Bounty through ship destruction. I'm certain it didn't used to function that way, so that is awesome if it does now. It really does solve the issue, if death is not the end of the road for paying off your wanted level.