I have equipment that is hard to acquire being out there alone most of the time. To me it's not about the money, but rather the availability of the equipment. And that with the time restraints in gaming time I have. I get to play maybe 2-3 max per week for couple of hours. I would be spending most of the time flying to acquiring the lost SN or Nuke mine. It's a lame excuse, but at least I can dedicate my game time to give some RP (and fighting if need be) opportunities to my adversaries instead.
So In every fight there comes a point I either need to decide to retreat (while I have still all subsystems, but I know I might lose some very soon) or just stick with the fight.
I know it's pretty OORP way to suicide your way out of the repair bill. That's why I don't immediately go seek suicide but wait and change the system perhaps and arrange so that I won't make it alive (pick a fight etc).
But this is one of those very hard to judge things really. Nobody likes it but given the alternative I think it can be done in somewhat RP and style instead of "//gf" and after two seconds, "player x has committed suicide".
