Yeah I'm Combat Master, Trading Entrepreneur and Explorer - Mostly Noob. I don't think I've been more than 200ly from where I started! And that was just to buy a discounted ship at Founders.
Scouts are agile - but no match for Beam Turrets

Since the last update there are a lot less High Intensity Resource sites (and a lot less action at them) so that's a shame. There was some very good money to be made at those.
Haven't come across a lot of other players out there - I think that's why they're announcing things like the Gold rush at so and so system this week. To get everyone to the same systems. Or maybe I'm just in the wrong place and the wrong time zone.
Of course there are people - and I've done it myself - who will trade in the relative safety of Solo mode until they build up a decent defensive capability. Horizons looks good. Really wanted the lifetime pass but the Aussie dollar crashed at the wrong time!