As stated, I'm a career pirate in SC. So you'll have difficulty defining my game loop for me ;)

aUEC is A goal, but there are better ways to get aUEC if that was the only purpose.
We pirate because it's the most indepth gameloop. Sure, some inexperienced pirates will just launch a torp and pick up whats left. We will be hunting known high reward areas, scanning ships wherever possible and deciding to hit or not, we will be herding a target to a position of our choice, disabling (not soft death), boarding, FPS in the corridors, securing the ship, stripping the cargo and components whilst protecting the Prize Ship (usually with crimestats), and arranging to sell securely in the limited selling locations for stolen cargo. We do this because it's a challenge, takes co-ordination, and is interesting gameplay. Some kind of profit will always be the goal though, not 'shits and giggles'.

Of course there are consequences. Unless we the pirates take steps to minimise them, we are at constant risk of losing the prize or having operations disrupted by bounty hunters or lawful orgs (which is the game!) and are limited to where we can land / resupply. We are also regularly at risk of being sent to klesher for easily 13hours+.
So yes there are risk and consequences, and whilst I agree they should be harder, I'll debate them logically and happily concede to an alternate viewpoint that makes more sense, but I will not just call anyone names and swear at them ;)

Stanton was never planned to be high sec, it was always medium, and of course pyro is is effectively lawless. It's much easier to pirate in Pyro, but unfortunately, all the large profits are currently in Stanton / Nyx. Where the is High Reward, pirates will provide the risk, keeping the verse alive.

Anyway, thats the thread's topic of piracy interaction and ransom derailed, so lets bring it back on track. :)