Sooooo… a good rule of thumb in EVE is:
“The more popular the area, the more dangerous it potentially is.”
Let me elaborate:
There is certain degree of convenience when there are many, many people concentrated in an area.
After all, one person cannot do and produce everything.
And the closer one is to supply chains and markets the more competition for goods there is (cheaper prices), the shorter the supply runs are (more time spend optimizing one’s efforts), and the less time hassling with logistics.
The flip side of that is the more “honey” there is in at certain locations, the more certain “predators” are attracted to that location.
And in more crowded systems it is more difficult to see these people (though, one should be taking precautions anyways).
This issue is increased by an order of magnitude in low-sec space (0.4 to 0.1 systems).
In low-sec there is no NPC protection besides a token defense from the stargates and stations.
This means than the more “popular” a low-sec system is, the more of a bloodbath it is (which can be a good thing if you are enterprising enough and can stomach risk
).
.
tldr:
More popular places carry more risk.
In high-sec, the most popular paths are the shortest paths to the destination. These paths also carry the highest risk.
In low-sec, the most “popular” paths are the ones no one is on… and these paths change daily. Being safer is a greater priority.