I'm pretty sure that the anomaly's still there if you look around. Also, I believe that your argument about the gate is in fact invalid, since during the SP campaign, when you flee from Liberty, you flee through a gate right in the middle of the badlands. Also, the destruction of Benford station (see, a pair of stations and a gate in the badlands) is done by what is now known as the Liberty siege cruiser, one of the capital ships that you claim are too large to go into the badlands.
P.S. sorry if this sounds a bit like a flame, I'm tired at the moment so I'm probably not being as polite as usual.
