Why are you presuming that highsec wars don't have reasons? There's no thing in the world that a person does that doesn't have a reason behind it. Like I said before, just because you don't know what it is, or you don't think the reason is legitimate it does not cause that reason to not exist.

Real wars happen because the conflict satisfies some kind of need in one or both parties. The need isn't necessarily a material one, it can be ideological or religious in nature, they can happen in reaction to perceived threats that don't exist or to get revenge for something. The same is true in EVE.

The argument that people declare war on highsec PVE corps at random and for no reason is wrong, there's always a reason.

2 points.

1.) if fair is not an integral part of the game, then why do they do so much work on ship balancing? Seems they would just let one races ships stay OP if they didn't care about fairness.

Why are you presuming that highsec wars don't have reasons? There's no thing in the world that a person does that doesn't have a reason behind it. Like I said before, just because you don't know what it is, or you don't think the reason is legitimate it does not cause that reason to not exist.

Real wars happen because the conflict satisfies some kind of need in one or both parties. The need isn't necessarily a material one, it can be ideological or religious in nature, they can happen in reaction to perceived threats that don't exist or to get revenge for something. The same is true in EVE.

The argument that people declare war on highsec PVE corps at random and for no reason is wrong, there's always a reason.

2 points.

1.) if fair is not an integral part of the game, then why do they do so much work on ship balancing? Seems they would just let one races ships stay OP if they didn't care about fairness.

I'm sure you thought that was a pretty cutting point, but really you're just playing semantics with a concept that has a conveniently loose definition that varies wildly by context.

The game is fair on a macro scale in most regards: We're playing by the same overarching rules that govern the game. By logging in and playing the game, you're agreeing to be bound by those rules, and agreeing that other players are bound by the same set of rules, and may do or not do as those rules permit.

On a micro scale, however, the game isn't overly concerned with fairness, and this is a part of those aforementioned overarching rules that govern the game, none of which dictate that this is a game of internet spaceship duels where grievances are settled via Rifters at 30 paces. It's not Bob's problem if Alice wants to sit in high sec and never fight. That's Alice's problem, and while Alice is free to pursue that lifestyle, she's not free to dictate that other players must accommodate her in that pursuit. Those are the rules she agreed to when she logged in. That's "fair".

That's a fair point. But I fear you are only looking at this from one perspective. If it shouldn't be Bob's problem if Alice wants to never fight and Alice shouldn't be able to dictate that to other players... Then why is it currently Alice's problem if Bob wants to sit in high sec and create havoc for as many easy targets as possible. Furthermore, why is Bob allowed to dictate his wants on others and Alice is not?

2 points.

1.) if fair is not an integral part of the game, then why do they do so much work on ship balancing? Seems they would just let one races ships stay OP if they didn't care about fairness.

2.) This has gone beyond merc coprs. There's corps out there with 100+ war decs. I guarantee you that they are not "guns for hire" in most of them. Since their targets tend to be smaller insignificant, easy target corps that a larger alliance with money to hire mercs could easily attack on their own. Most actual merc corps get hired to take out much bigger targets.

My carebear alliance was recently decced.

Corp mining events were cancelled and the most
common reaction to the dec was that members stopped logging in.

When the war was over, many but not all of our members started logging in again.

Yes, there are many different ways to respond to a war dec,
but the stop playing response is quite strong in many players.

I am sure to be informed that those players who stopped playing were not "right" for EVE anyway and therefore no loss to the game.

If mining is one of -or the- main activity of your corp, he should've simply asked all miners to temporarily drop corp and just go right ahead with your mining ops.

It's maybe an inelegant solution but much better than not playing or -worse- permanently losing corp members (assuming, as you seem to imply, that they were excellent EVE players).

My carebear alliance was recently decced.

Corp mining events were cancelled and the most
common reaction to the dec was that members stopped logging in.

When the war was over, many but not all of our members started logging in again.

Yes, there are many different ways to respond to a war dec,
but the stop playing response is quite strong in many players.

I am sure to be informed that those players who stopped playing were not "right" for EVE anyway and therefore no loss to the game.

3) Drop corp* and travel to the system with the mining agent

4) Rejoin corp, and do the agent's missions while watching local.

Actually, for many casuals, not playing for a while is much less of a hassle than losing corp chat, setting up an alternate chat channel

Because at it's core Eve is about PVP, it's not a single player space mining simulator. Giving people a mechanic to avoid PVP for whatever reason, no matter how well meaning will always result in horrendous abuse.
Let's say I gank a mining corp to bear extinction, and they decide to war dec me to get revenge. We'll guess what, I don't want to be under a wardec, I want to gank. Why should they be allowed to dictate how I play? So I use the mechanic you are suggesting and avoid the war. You will not be able to make a mechanic along the lines of what you are describing without a situation like this happening.

Heaps of good advice

The only reason anyone does hisec mining at all is because it's simple, easy, and generally doesn't require you to pay much attention as long as you're not flying obvious gank-bait. Having to take active measures to avoid getting murdered ruins the ISK:Effort ratio and I can't really think of a worse way to make money if you're going to be actively babysitting your ship.