Those suggestions would certainly make the most (arguably) boring part of the game (flying between destinations) more interesting, I can see how people would be against it. Perhaps another mission option to transport items would be a good way to do this, with the understanding that any transportation missions could/will have dangers. Such as being caught by police, unstable items being transported and so on.
I do have to agree with an earlier poster, that I would rather see more demand for ore by players than making it harder. I mine for xp because almost nobody needs any ore I obtain, especially below 9. One thought that occurred to me is that perhaps a chance that a trader ripping ores from a comp could have a failure, or contaminated end result. That might sway things slightly to have them at least check for ores before using one or more comps to get what they need, or ending up with contaminated ore. Just a thought.
I think certain types of ore (raw or not) could be likely to draw attention, weather from pirates, police or whatever, sounds like a good idea. Perhaps it would fit better into an overarching story such as maybe the RDs are working on some project that requires a lot of radioactive material, so they attack anyone they detect carrying such.