Ursus, its just a differet game now. Getting caught off-guard = you lose. So you need to put all your effort into avoid detection, rather than into honing your transport turret pew skills. Other ships than the 5K'er and the Battletransport might prove more profitable for the power trader, along with non-corporate ID's. It's a change of gameplay, and so trading should be approached differently. I'm not saying there won't be any complications, but it's just a trial and lets give it a shot.
EDIT: That being said, the removal of the trader exception can be considered one big nerf to trading, but on the other hand there has been too many credits in the system for a while now, and credits have been too easy to obtain. IMO it needed a nerf in any case.