Still debating this topic after all this time?
I understand they use to allow people to exit the pods at the stations and walk about. I don’t see that effect would help a lot other than to allow the 12 year-olds to masturbate to their 3D models. They probably do that enough without such a feature.
However –
If it wasn’t for the fact the game lore is already set in stone, I would make it possible to get out and walk about my ship during long flights across the vast regions of space. Multitude of the television space shows did this; Star Trek, Firefly, Andromeda, Dark Matter, Farscape, etc…
Why?
Because it would be a boring series to watch a ship fly from point to point and have nothing else to do. It would be akin to watching the world’s longest commercial break. They explored their ships, talked to crew members, and solved other problems. If it wasn’t for the fact, this game already has ships with only one person aboard in a vat of goo, you could be talking to the engineer about the humming noise coming from your engines and helping them fix them in a mini game. Or talking to the ship’s doctor about his current alcoholism and playing a mini game to keep him away from the booze. These mini games could have been used as skill point buffs when you win.
As it stands now, it is almost a must to babysit your ship, and never use the autopilot, if you plan to get there in one piece. In the TV series, the captain would get ample notice of an impeding attack or at least have competent crew members on the bridge to handle it while they raced there.
In the end, it doesn’t matter anymore. They built the game, released the game, the game is not going to change for the better. As I stated in this thread already, all of these online games get one shot at the brass ring, afterwards it is all downhill from there. Some games attempt sequels and they often fail on launch, other (e.g. Overwatch) attempt the 2.0 version and they fail to change enough of the core game to matter. All too often too much change and the veterans will up and leave the game.
This is the fate of all MMO’s and PvP games online, this Eve Online and it will never see a brighter future ahead.