Sirius under an economic crysis?

[FooFighter]

I agree with Nathrael fully... Besides buffing transports/freighters

Actually, why not? I think one of the most frustrating things about trading is that, even if you just get jumped by a little VHF in your big 5k Transport, you either flee or you're dead. There's no chance you can win against any semi-good opponent while flying a transport (not to mention freighters). Escorts are useless too when it comes do battle. They may be a nice deterrence, but if the attacker's not too bad and in a bomber he can make you explode in a ball of blue goo even before your escorts can say engaging. I'm not saying transports and freighters should become as powerful as GBs, but they should be able to defend themselves to some degree and have enough armor that taking out escorts before turning to the trader himself might be a better choice.

Non-RPers tend to have the patience for mindless grinding, while RPers rarely do.

And that is, at least from my experience, completely true (with a few notable exceptions).

Even worse when pirates demand I drop my cargo or give unreasonable amounts.

Guess why they are doing it. They probably hate trading just as much as you do, and want to finance their stuff with piracy - yuhee, even more frustration for everybody. A tip though for people being afraid of pirates...fly in convoys of 4 or more Transports. Percheron and Shire swarms are damn scary for Gunboat pirates. Bombers will still have an easy SNACk though.