Willyum-71
Thank you for the breakdown... I just started unlocking engineers about two weeks ago, I want to start playing in open but avoided it because all of the youtubers warning people about gankers destroying people's ships for absolutely no reason, with no cargo or any type of role play... Plus I was wandering around that Dark nebula right outside the bubble and Every system I went to had 50-100 non-human contacts, so I was curious, checked them out and was instantly killed by Thargoids, no warning, no scan, just instant attack... So, time to learn how to fight.
Open is not so scary.
I was ganked once when I started to play, and have had a few pirates, so don't fly without the re-buy cost, but always can be found in open.
Its a big galaxy out there, so bumping into others is not too common, specially with the odyssey/horizon split, and most people are friendly, some will even give advise and practice at fighting. Care should be taken around community goals, and stations offering huge prices on things like painite, otherwise you are pretty safe.