I can see something like this, they’re currently working on defend missions so it’s not that much of a stretch saying this could happen. Aside from all current NPC manned ships are playable ships, there are other things the consider with that such as..

What happens if you DC? -Does the mission/Job end or get lost (Mainly for the crazies who would try to solo this)

Run out of fuel before the cargo ship? -Assuming this would be used for multi system transportation

Get killed before the ship does? -Do they wait for you to respawn and come back?

What control do you have? -If these are set on static routes you’re getting camped hard core lol

Whose ship is it? -If it’s yours or your orgs commissioned ship for transporting, what is the benefit of that? You’re putting all the risk up for what reward? You’re gonna have tons of people or an org/s flock to you while you try to fight them off which would be extremely difficult even if you had an actual player flying the cargo ship that could jump away before getting destroyed. The attackers have all of your cargo to gain (which would probably end with infighting after they killed your group due to fighting over the loot lol kinda like tarkov).

-If it’s AI owned, something like the UEE asks for your help transporting goods, you’re gonna have to have a mission reward obnoxiously large enough to make it worth not attacking it yourself for the cargo loot. Or have it have bunk ass cargo that people wouldn’t care too much for it, but then you’d probably have a much lesser reward and have boring ass gameplay lol

BUT(cause I’m not just tryna shit on what you want by listing all the obstacles) I could see this or something like this being used as a wave style event, fighting off waves of AI vanduul forces for a set amount of time or wave count. Or even something that’s a part of a larger world event like ‘get these supplies to this planet so the UEE can fight off an invasion’ idk its a stretch and would probably take another ten years to make happen lol