Personally, I don't really care if Rare has '...discussed, and dropped...' the idea or not. This is my first run on the closed testing of the game. In every game, a safe zone is required; it's essential! And, if we want to add realism into the mix, Nassau, one of the most well known, real life, pirate havens of the seas, also followed at least some variant of fair play.
But trying to put to port on what should be a safe haven for pirates, and then getting ganked by a bunch of foul mouthed, over Red-Bulled kids... whether or not you have any treasure goes against The Code that Rare itself said it wanted people to uphold.
Like this or not, the only ones supporting the current system are either those whom have not experienced it in solo play yet, or those in 2-4 man ships stalking the solo players, the outposts or more common 'first time' islands, griefing other players, and then laughing about it.. I know, my directional headset can hear their conversations just fine. If this is how Rare supports Fair game play then maybe my money can be spent on something that doesn't feel like it caters to the bullies of the world. And so far, I've seen a lot more players in favor of a Safe Haven, rather than just a CoD griefing, spawn camping match with cannons and sabers, instead of rifles and grenades.