Not really. Highsec has always had NPC rats that the players were suppose to deal with. They were just made ineffectual and inconsequential by a decade of power creep, to the point anything but the weakest ship can just flat-out ignore them. Highsec was left to languish until CCP developed a new AI and was looking for places in the game where it could be deployed, and then did so to bring some life back to that area of space.
These NPCs, like the old ones, are still easily avoidable if you want to farm in peace. Leave them alone, and keep an eye out for the pirate FOBs spawning (which you had to do for Incursions before anyway), and highsec is as safe as it was before.
You are just upset because you suffered a loss. Get over it - loss in Eve Online isn’t bad game design, it is a feature! New Eden is an ever-changing place where your ship can explode when you least want it to so don’t fly what you can’t afford to lose. Embrace the Golden Rules and stop pouting over the loss of some imaginary assets. These NPCs provide a little life to a practically lifeless space and are here to stay, so your time would be better spent reading about and experimenting with these entities, rather than yelling at CCP for daring to change something as they try to make their game more interesting.