Your pirate experience may vary, so good luck. As to the Black Holes, in Reboot you can set a time in the Options for the automatic pilot to take over. I have it set at 2 seconds, so if I don;t take control of the ship straight away the AI takes over, and up to 3 Dominator's does quite well, like I do, but at 4 it fails, just like I do, so the AI is just like me - which I find a little scary!
The only pirates I definitely go after are the one's that zip in just as I am about to pick up some minerals or an enine or laser or something - that is so annoying and is like he is just baiting me!
Such is the realism you give to this gameworld as you get immersed, you really do start seeing other races and ship captains as real people! Especially when, in Reboot, you get more conversations between other ships as they fight, etc!