Mining gets nerfed and miner and ore hauler numbers drop off a cliff.
See a link there?
This is not piracy at work. It's system mechanics. Market forces even, assuming pirates, unscrupulous law enforcers and the odd freelancer are part of that 'market'.
When diamonds and niobium were the 'in thing', nothing could stop the endless trade convoys running between the two bases. It was all bottlenecking through one system. Outcast, Corsairs, Blood Dragons to name but a few fought for their right to loot the transports as they passed, not to mention the GC at one end and the Hessians at the other.
The route got nerfed and the convoys stopped over night.
In disco, the carrot is always bigger than the stick or no one will bother to go for the carrot and the stick just moves off somewhere else.
For my money, mining was hit harder than maybe it should have been, but it's early days still. Suck it and see...
Perhaps the next alteration won't be quite so dramatic?
Slowly slowly.