Oh yeah, well I guess it's not retarded really, just seems a little illogical to me, to risk losing 50M for the sake of a 20M tax (when they know this is the last lane on the route), I'll probably lower that anyway, especially when I'm in a non-transport.
If they escape 20% of the time, maths n crap says they only make 10M on average per escape attempt, less than the fine.
They would have to make a successful escape more than 40% of the time for it to be a sound business decision, not going to happen unless they have an escort, (or even better, a scout, then they don't have to come into contact with pirates at all).
