Lock and fire AvA is fine for me, that was the expectation set years ago, in fact, I'd PREFER it. I'm sure the situation you've presented would have a fix, if it did end up being a problem.
The way I see it, this game needs a way avatars can fight other avatars to be successful. This game has been called a civilization building sandbox mmo from day 1, not a soley a ship builder. We have other, more fun, and better fleshed out ship builder pvp games out there. The math is simple, and the writing is on the wall if all NQ plans to deliver is a space pvp'er game where it takes ages to get somewhere, and if you do encounter the sparse space fight, its likely to be quick and not as fun compared to other games that has done it already.
Its time to put civilization stuffs into the 'civilization building mmo'. AvA, territory warfare, and AvC.