I don’t remember the EHP, but I use to regularly mine with Hulks in HS and survived more than one gank attempt. And depending on how hard they hit the orca with the nerf bat, I will probably go back to using them.
There is almost always a ship that is viable for your play style, I just enjoy drones. If they make a drone boat that has the same tank and yield as a Hulk as a replacement for the Orca’s mining reduction/removal, I would be in it as fast as I could skill it.