Maybe you should explain what the purpose of pirates is in your and what they should do.

Is piracy just a modifier to a sector that reduces income by 25% for being near to a low moral low security sector.

Do you want to spawn pirate dread lords and bases that your military have to deal with otherwise they rampage through your empire.

Do you want pirates to be a long term complex strategic issue, that requires the investment of manpower, espionage, and resources.

Are pirates a way of slowing growth by making colonies less secure

Are pirates a way of adding danger to the core worlds that are otherwise safe and secure.

What purpose do pirates fulfil in your game design?

What purpose do pirates fulfil in your game design?

Actually, I want an early space battle :) Some military action that is not too hard, during the early game before all these nasty aliens appear. Also, I want a recurring enemy (pirates respawn), so the military must be ready all the time. And as a diversion (so you can't send all ships to fight the main enemy, you need to keep some fleet in your core territory to deal with these pirates which can and will appear).

So, while tokens are nice and logical, I would prefer if there was some sort of battle with ships and laserfire...

A slightly similar function rebels would have (but not that random and notorious and stronger).

Pirates can also serve a purpose of population movements, I'd prefer living in secure player sector instead of pirate infested alien sector.

PS : it's Cerulian :)