After all these elaborate counter scenarios posted in the thread with pirates getting harassed because they can no longer provoke PVP from everyone, it sure is going to be hard to tell whether they're incidental or deliberately carried out to "prove" how broken the rule is.
Pirates can still pick on cash cows, and are still pretty much guaranteed PVP just by hanging around busy areas for lawfuls who're all too willing to engage first with fewer words than a pirate would making a demand and waiting. There are also plenty of non-generic unlawful faction IDs to choose from.