Just because you didn't figure out that avoiding the PvP zone is the best policy doesn't make it not true. I'm glad that you were able to defend successfully, but for every one of you there are 10 new players, inexperienced in PvP, who are actively harming their nations by deciding to try out PvP for the first time.
See, we think PvP is fun and want more people to try it. But noobs are, under the old values, easy points waiting to be harvested by attackers. We don't want noobs to best serve their nation by keeping away from PvP; we want them to get out there and learn PvP by getting out there and risking their ship a few times.