You are looking at it from a veteran player POV, Liq. If you just had made enought money to buy your first brig from NPC and in the next mission you have to fight three enemy ships of the same tier. You play this game for 2, maybe 3 hours, no tutorial (well, a very basic combat tutorial), no tooltips, maybe nobody in help chat, very basic UI.
Suddenly, you are heavily outgunned and outnumbered in a basic pve battle. These things frustrate new players, they leave and never come back.
Famous example is @rediii's brother. He told his story a few times, if I recall correct.