Early Thoughts On A High Sec Station Nerf

With a weekend to think about CCP Ytterbium's post that mentioned CCP's desire to nerf high sec stations, I came up with some initial thoughts about the proposal.  The passage in question is below.

Q: ONE OF THE REASONS FOR LOW-SECURITY SPACE BEING CRAP REMAINS THAT HIGH-SECURITY STATIONS ARE TOO GOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE, DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO ADJUST THIS?

A: Indeed we do. This topic brought quite an internal discussion, and while this most likely won't be part of a Factional Warfare iteration, we do want to have a look at reducing high-security stations effectiveness to make other areas of space more interesting. Some examples could be reducing refining rates, increasing ISK payment to install jobs. Nothing is set in stone as this is not planned for the immediate future however. Another good idea we noticed here was to tie high-security tax with the war performance of its related Factional Warfare Militia. So if, by example, the Caldari Militia are losing the war in Factional Warfare, all taxes in Caldari State high-security space could go up to support the war effort.

Don't Ignore The Lore - Up until now high sec stations were superior to low sec stations, if only because of safety reasons.  CCP should not just implement changes without explaning why the changes make sense in the context of the New Eden universe.  An example I came up with to explain a nerf is that for the last 9 years the stations have operated at full capacity and failed to keep up with maintenance tasks.  That resulted in the degradation of refining capacity and manufacturing speed.  In addition to a nerf for those reasons, the station fees also need to increase in order to pay for the damage caused by the short-sighted policies of the empires.

How Does The Nerf Advance The Long Term Plan?  Sure, nerfing high sec stations should drive players toward low and null sec.  But does the move follow the long term plan?  According to the initial long term guidelines for improving null sec first talked about last August:

"Our current proposal is that hisec is for volume T1 goods, lowsec will be for meta/faction gear eventually, nullsec is for T2, and wormholes are for T3"

How will nerfing the high sec stations affect the high sec industrialists ability to produce volume T1 goods?

Linked To POS Revamp?  I'm wondering if CCP is looking to link a high sec station nerf with the POS revamp.  Moving high sec production from stations to POS would make that production more susceptible to disruption due to wardecs.

Tying High Sec To Faction Warfare - In theory tying tax rates in high sec to a faction's fortunes in faction warfare sounds interesting.  But CCP needs to fix faction warfare first.  Also, taxes from high sec residents should not go towards paying players in faction warfare.  I'm against removing another ISK sink from the game.

Improving One Area By Nerfing Another?  In general, I am against the principle of improving one region by nerfing another.  If CCP conducts a nerf of high sec stations, they also need to buff low sec stations if the goal is to make low sec stations more attractive.

I am sure that over the next several months, and especially following the Winter expansion, we will hear more about proposals to nerf high security stations.  Actually by that time Eve players and the devs will have their hands full assimilating DUST players into New Eden.  So depending on how smooth the DUST implementation is may determine when CCP can nerf high sec.