I'll take this a small step further, and forgive me if it derails your thread slightly.

Instead of making travel easier what EVE could really use is for travel to be made more challenging.

I know it seems counter intuitive to you, but travel is far too easy and far too boring as it stands now.

The highway systems in place now were put there originally to ease server load in certain area's, and were great when introduced, but we are now at a point where it would be beneficial to the entire player base for the different regions of EVE to be more isolated from each other.

Wouldn't it be nice to NOT have to run to Jita all the time, if the trade hub a few jumps away developed into a much more competitive entity because most of the trade in your area was done there instead?

Different area's would have their own quirks, what is cheaply available in one area may be highly valuable in another. The trick to cashing in on that would be to have the skills to get from one area to another safely on a regular basis, and if it were easy to do that (as it is now) the potential profits evaporate because "anyone can do it"... and does.

Lower skill pilots make coin keeping the local market stocked. More highly skilled pilots make a bit better coin by making the dangerous inter regional treks. The economy as a whole thrives.

In Null, huge fleets cannot move freely to engage each other. Smaller, faster ships become preferred and larger vessels reserved for what would need to be well thought out strategic needs.

Just something to think about.