Doesn't work this way.
Ganking freighters is so cheap that they just gank empty ones for fun. It's not a rare event, that's happening every day. Just from last week empty or almost emty (below ganking value):
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42791439/
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42776286/
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42714532/
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42665205/
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42664682/
https://beta.eve-kill.net/kill/42714532/

Pretty much everyone doing this is -10.0 sec status, which means that they can't simply hang around the gate waiting for a ship. They have a bumping ship with high security status to keep the freighter there, and, of course, the bumping ship doesn't get a security status penalty for the gank, regardless of the fact that it's the key role allowing the whole operation to happen.

With the bumping ship the gank has no chance of failure. So we have something that has no chance of failure and the victim has no chance of escape, and it is done purely for player harassment with no profit whatsoever. It's also cheap enough to afford on regular basis.

So let's see how we can avoid this:
Changing route ? All routes across high sec travel through at least one 0.5 system.
Bringing friends ? Maybe, if you carry 3-4B once per week. If you fly a freighter regularly (a few hundred jumps per day), it's not feasible to have someone escort you all the time, especially when it is empty.
Webbing alt ? Yes it works, but a game mechanic that requires paying for two accounts doesn't seem like an intended way to play the game.
Scouting and checking map ? Yes, most of the time. However, even if you don't see 20 red people in local, a single battleship and a rookie ship can pin you there until the gang comes, even if it takes 30 minutes.
Tanking your ship ? Yes, this is the best defense. However, this just brings the gank cost a bit higher. They gank empty jump freighters just for fun. Since they don't do it for profit, it's only a question of having enough people online.

Obviously, killing people for fun should be allowed. Carrying 2B in a 1B ship should not be a safe thing either. However, this is systematic player harassment, and the main goal of this is not to make profit, to get a cool kill mail, or to gain something in game, but to make people angry and miserable. Especially since it's all done via valid game mechanics that are not preventable.

How would removing/reducing non-consensual PvP in highsec "destroy" the game?

"I love EVE and the core of what the game stands for. That's why I've been dedicated to it and its community for over 11 years now.

Risk vs Reward is a huge part of that.

Honestly, if that changed, and the game started to soften out and cater to those who want to have their hand held all the way through their gameplay experience, I'd rather not be working on the project regardless of how many subscribers we had, than sell out the core principles that New Eden was built on.

That's a sentiment that I hear a lot around the office, because we are all invested in what makes New Eden so compelling - The dark, gritty, hard reality beneath the pretty ships and nebulas.

EVE is built on the core principle that you are never 100% safe, no matter where you go or what you do. When you interact with another player, you roll the dice on whether they're going to screw you over or not. That's a massive part of the social engineering behind the very basic underpinnings of the EVE Universe.

EVE is built on the core principle that you are never 100% safe, no matter where you go or what you do. When you interact with another player, you roll the dice on whether they're going to screw you over or not. That's a massive part of the social engineering behind the very basic underpinnings of the EVE Universe.

How would removing/reducing non-consensual PvP in highsec "destroy" the game?

How have I opposed PvP interaction? Have I tried to ban trading and manufacturing? I support the player driven market, a form of PvP. Incursions are PvP, due to limited sites, and contests, and I support that.

CCP do not want Eve Online to have safe zones: No where is 100% safe.

Makes perfect sense.

You activate a non-passive module against someone, Concord pays a friendly visit. You don't activate a module, Concord leaves you well alone.

So in this case, a freighter/etc. clumsily moves around in space failing to get out of the way of other ships, Concord doesn't kill it.

Concord probably should.

It's hard to argue with a straight face that suicide ganking in highsec materially impacts the Eve economy. The amount of damage caused is dwarfed by a single significant nullsec engagement. How many months of suicide ganking would you need to equal a single BR-5?

Sov null is so boring, empty, and super safe, that the chances of anyone showing up are so remote that it's not worth the effort to be at your keyboard.

Ok, tell me, where apart from jump/bridge (since that was created as a fleet mechanic from start) you need alts to use your titan.

Anyway... with all the hate freighters are getting constantly on GD and in game we might as well just delete that ship type and its T2 variant from the game and just haul using industrials. Seems like thats what most people want....