I've done quite a bit of pirating in ore fields, and although I never bothered complain, I must agree with the OP that POB's in very close proximity to resource extraction points kill balance, as in, removes it completely and make piracy in such places almost pointless.
Last year when POB's were turned off temporarily I noticed the new connection from Tau-37 to Nagano and quickly realized the system was great for getting high valued ore (as an alternative to Tau-23) and so also good for piracy opportunities. When POB's were turned back on, Shiojiri was a fair bit above the ore field. That didn't tick me off, it was about 20k (if i remember correctly) above and still served its purpose. It could store ore and also serve as shelter, but to ships not currently engaged in mining.
After it was moved upon request, piracy at that ore field became far more difficult. I've used a cloak the entire time. Also at around that time the RP requirement for 'attacking' bases came in, so I dropped a post to be fair about my intentions. As previously described, I do fly in cloaked, drop within close enough range to CD and raise its shield for obvious reasons.
Problem one is, the weapons platforms are still good enough for the trader to hide behind, making a successful attack almost impossible, even if the ship can't dock. Although it feels good to launch a successful 'surprise' attack, even if just being able to harass your opponent, it seems fruitless since the trader can basically laugh at you. Maybe its not so bad if you're in pairs, but as a lone pirate, you're lucky to survive the initial CD. Before cloak times were severely reduced, I would try to linger and see if the trader would fill up, or buy at the base, and try to wait until they departed to make the attack. This worked some of the time, but not always. Now, in the end, it seems pointless to try to get in there to attack miners or transports there because of the base. To me, if they want to watch the list and run when they see me on there, its not so bad if they have to run 15-20k to get to safety, at least the POB lets them have storage and etc which is a step up from an NPC base. But most miners can dock and log before you even get close to the place and are more than happy to wait a pirate out.
Long short of it, the base's presence makes me not even bother. In a way i know that that's a good thing for the lawfuls who seek to secure the area, but at the same time, this being a game, deters me as a player from playing because it seems rather pointless in advance. I know there's pros and cons but a bit of space there wouldn't hurt to counter other oorp factors that work against pirates.
![[Image: G38aJ6J.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/G38aJ6J.jpg)