It's crap from the point of view of a veteran pirate? I'm not surprised.
I should qualify the statement. It's not the statement that you feel it's a waste of time that is crap. It's a statement that it's a waste of time for people that is crap. If one finds it quite enjoyable, then that is not a waste of their time.
To make a corollary -- I consider mining to be a waste of time. However I don't tell people that it's bad use of their RL time simply because I think it's boring as hell.
Does that make sense?
I think what we have here is primarily I took to disagreement with the way you put the idea forth, not the idea itself.
I must say it does come down to what people find fun. I don't find piracy fun because I find it a poor investment of my time (i.e. reward vs time investment). I don't feel I'm achieving anything during the 'search time'. Naturally, that's an opinion. Some people enjoy spending time roaming looking for viable targets. I interpret the reward in piracy to be the end result - kills and terror.
That's just it though. For some of us, the "Hunt" is the part that's fun. The kill is easy. You go into the fight
knowing you will get the kill. It's stalking your prey that is the
real enjoying factor -- and this I believe is where the difference comes in.
Shooting a deer isn't fun. It's really easy to do and anyone with even the most basic firearm skill can do it. The prep work, the hunt, the stalking -- that's why Hunting is fun.
I repeat - it's an opinion. Trade on the other hand, from my point of view, can be extremely efficient time investment - every single click is creating a measurable, predicatable positive effect on your isk if you know what you are doing, which you can then use for your nefarious designs. Not a single unproductive minute, with a dependable reward-time investment. I did get tired of 'patrols' that resulted in 15-20 jumps and 1 'worthless' kill, but that may have been partly a factor of my ROE. The kill itself would net loot value that could be recouped in a fraction of the time through other means...
...but is it
fun? That's the question.
Sure, it's a more efficient way to
make isk, but is that why you play the game? Just to make isk?
That's what I was disagreeing with, btw, I figured it out. I was disagreeing with the idea that if you're not making isk every time you do anything you're not efficiently using your RL time.
I think that is crap, and I also think that is something that burns people out on EVE.