I personally don't have a problem with cube shaped ships, but being able to mount large railguns and radar on a tiny cube and then shoot freight ships 160km away that cant even see them is a bit ridiculous. I totally get the minimalist approach to building, i totally get that people want to be able to take out larger ships with smaller fighters, but the range and mechanics of the current cube meta are ridiculously lopsided. if you are in an actual hauler, and you happen to run across one of these cubes, which is currently fairly rare, there's not much you can do. You cant outrun them, you can't even see them to shoot back with the ranges involved... I mean if they at LEAST made it so that firing larger weapons or hitting someone with weapons made you visible on radar for a few seconds, it would give the guy that's just trying to play the game and get materials back to their base a chance to do SOMETHING... I totally get that people want to pvp in such a way that they minimize self risk and maximize kill potential... but being able to set up a complete checkmate to basically grief someone without them having a chance in hell to do anything about it is pretty dumb. A lot of players in this game like it because it is a building exploration game. Yes there are risks, and they can accept that, but it really throws mud in their eye when the game mechanics are such that "well if you run into one of these meta cube guys you're just gonna lose the last 8 hours of work gathering materials, and your ship and there's nothing you can do about it" I'm not a fan of no-win scenarios. I mean if I'm an idiot and dont even put weapons on my ship and I get killed by someone that did, fair, that was my fault. If its impossible for me to defend myself when I take precautions? Time to find a new game.
My basic point is, pvp? YES i want it. Do I want some guy with a very cheap (well thought out) ship to completely checkmate me when I'm in anything other than a meta cube? NO. Some people want to only "pvp" all day and do very little else, and some people want to try out all aspects of the game. Stacking all the cards in the pvp'ers hand and spitting on the people that actually want to do the other half of the game (build/explore) is going to kill this game if it is not dealt with at some point somehow. Completely one sided engagements are only fun for the people that are automatically going to win, and even then its barely fun for them after 3-4 times because they didn't have much risk. Next thing you know all the players left in the game are sitting in their little cubes looking for haulers, but there aren't any cuz they all quit playing.
This is the choosing point that most game developers nowadays have to decide on. If I were the developer, I would make choices that encourage more people to play and build a thriving community, make a lot of money. Choose to allow a few players to ruin the game for the majority, and this great game with great potential will sink into obscurity.