They don't own a planet, they have a small asteroid that they remodeled using junk from whereever.
So why not a starbase? That asteroid has health, probably personnel, and acts as a base anyway. I really don't see your argument in them not being allowed to have a starbase because pirates shouldn't have a static base-- when they already have a static base.
The "massive fleets" are actually quite puny compared to what regular factions can put up, given you don't play an AI game where pirates raid undefended AI planets until they become unstoppable. The normal pirate fleets cannot even keep up with regular defenses until later stages of the game, where raid strenghts increase to maximum.
So its a big inefficient fleet. Doesn't change the fact that its a big fleet with lots of people piloting ships. Still, what pirates do you ever know that form fleets and attack whole nation armies? I'm just saying the way pirates are is already unrealistic and "abnormal" compared to most pirates, so why sweat the details?
I personally find the way pirates act in Sins to be a little unrefined and ineffective. This starts with the way bidding works, over to how pirate raids work and how you offer missions to them and ends with the way their base is set up.
I would agree with you. But that's not the discussion here and while I'd love to see the pirates be more realistic, that's not how they were designed.
Bombing mitigation for the Pirates might work, but I'd prefer a way that still permits you to take them out using caps and siege frigates without having to bomb the asteroid for hours.
Thus a starbase. You can keep the planet weak if needed. Or not. Doesn't really matter. And really, if they wanted to, it'd take a few lines of code to make the pirate planet untargetable by super weapons. You don't even have to mess with the health or anything.
I was only taking up one piece as an example since it shows pirates being equal (sometimes superior) in strenght with the local governments and authorities. It had nothing to do with how good or bad that story is .
And in Sins I've seen pirates wipe out factions, bomb and wipe out planets with supposedly billions of people, and trash smaller faction military fleets. All I'm saying is, its already that way. Sure they're not indomitable by any means but they're pretty tough when you consider what they do regularly and when you consider that factions actually pay massive bounties to get them on their side. So why not a star base? It seems less unrealistic than pirates have a buttload of super-uber-gauss turrets at their base. It can even be a crappy little corner with auto-guns and lasers. No beams or missles even. And of course, no shields but a lot of tacked on plates.
Pirate Starbase if fine by me, give 'em some capital ships to spice it up further! I believe it's the Distant Stars MOD that already has the spiny bits one them!
Heh, I've liked that idea for a while though it probably won't happen. If it did though, I say the new TEC Transport Capital makes most sense. It is a ship that sends a boarding crews to sabotage, pillage, and take over ships and structures. 
