The player is given a choice of yield. Personally given the choice, I got with the Skiff. When I could do things a lot easier in a orca or porpoise. And none of these or this thread cover gas.
I do not see an issue with low involved activity. When you consider that most of industry in Eve is a “set and forget”. To copy a freighter blueprint is 8 days. I do not have to do a thing for over week and still make isk. Is it the thought process to turn industry into a mechanical clock I need to wind all the time. Used to set 14day cycles on PI. Making isk and not active at the keyboard.
Go to an Ice Belt. It is not Orcas sitting around. There will be a couple providing boosts, but most of the heavy lifting is done with Skiffs and sometimes Procurers.
I would be just as happy to see the orca broken down into; foreman command ship, foreman logi/re-fitting and harvested-material freighter. Just delete mining drones. Or change their function to a static Sentry/Mining drone. Trading off the miners mobility vs yield.