I am also more for partialy merge, lets say to leave only 10% of current bits on transports and use rest for hull Buff, this is benefits of that:
-Hull is still increased,
-Pirate transports can still pirate and partialy repair them selfs,
-newbies more protected,
- full 5000 cargo traders will be in same boat ask before, no change there, except that now they're dont have to buy bits,
-little Cheaper repairs (you dont have to buy 200k worth bits after death anymore),
-With minimum bits reserve transport cant instantly Fully repair, buy only made imergency repair, which is more realistic,
-And one more thing, looks like docking modules can be functional in near future, if we Completly remove bits from transports, snubs cant suplay from them anymore at al, this way they can, once.