For every stupid trader who'd rather die than either consider paying anything, there's an equally stupid "2milordie" pirate.
I'm a trader and I usually pay any reasonable demands. I'll try to barter and talk my way out of it, but that's RP. If, however, I'm 2 jumps out and I get some pirate demanding 75% of my cargo's worth on a half hour run, I'm going to baulk at it. That's just economics. He is, IMHO, being unreasonable and it's quicker for me to redo the run and give him the finger at the same time.
What we need is less intransigent pirates and less intransigent traders.