You are correct about this.
Wars lack meaning because both corporations and highsec lack meaning. There are no highsec objectives to fight over (aside from the market citadels and POCOs) so wars largely lack purpose in highsec. A few still are used to push people out of systems or regions and explode structures, but mostly they are just used to explode the complacent and unaware now that just hunting someone for fun or to shake them down for profit is over.
What is desperately needed are some conflict drivers in highsec, and the rest of the game for that matter. Reasons to fight over things and each other. This strategy of taking a hands-off approach and make up our own reasons isn’t working. If you stuff highsec with infinite ore and missions, delete casual piracy, make corporations basically all equivalent and provide no unique resources or bonus to fight over, all that is left is making up flimsy reasons to generate content which many players are quick to label ‘tear farming’ or ‘griefing’.
There is a pervasive (and content-killing) psychology of players to bring some real-world moral code into the game and plays as ‘honourable’ and not attack other players without reasons. Some players are too tied to this eBushido code to ever be an aggressor, but most get this is just a game and will take the role of the aggressor if there is a concrete objective or reward to fight over. As it is, players join the game in highsec, spend months building up resources and getting ready to compete with the other players, only to find out there is nothing to compete over in highsec, so they either move to nullsec and join one of the bread-and-circus wars there to keep the line grunts entertained, try out the problematic Faction Warfare, or just quit out of boredom.
Highsec has so much more potential. All that is needed is to give some small, even token things to fight over, and some things that give limited (and thus desirable things) that you have to defend. Then wars suddenly have meaning, and mercenaries will find themselves with more things to do than just deny trade hub access to corporations and gank the ignorant. Don’t get me wrong, ganking the lazy and ignorant is an important service that is essential for a competitive game like Eve, but it really is pretty one-dimensional space combat content and objective based fights would or at least could be much more interesting.
One might have hoped the new Resource Wars would offer something to compete over given it has ‘Wars’ in the title, but no, it appears to be a purely collaborative and safe group PvE environment much like Incursions are, but with perhaps a more new player focus. That might be good for the game, but a conflict driver it ain’t. That leaves the also new Pirate Forward Operating Bases as a potential conflict driver, and although we haven’t heard any details on them, the description isn’t very promising again being focused on collaboration against NPCs rather than something to drive competition between player groups.
I have no idea why CCP seems so afraid to add some true conflict drivers to the game. Until they do though, wars are largely going to just be mass declared for no reason other than someone rolling the dice that you will not notice or do something stupid. I mean, with no compelling game reason to ever declare a war for the vast majority of corporations, why would any game designer think they would be used otherwise?