OLP = good, for single players/small factions who cant be online 24/7 because they have a real life job/school/family
OLP= bad for antisocial 24/7 drug dealers without a perspective in life thus forming together a big street gang on HWS similar to the street gang in real life where they are member of. Without offline protection they could spread there terrorism all over HWS without obstacles.
It would be ok to me playing without OLP IF bases would receive a HUGE buff, i dont mean something like „one artillery turret more“, i mean something like 
- 50 % more base turret range compared to vessels
- instant hit guns (e.g. flak turrets) to counter SV hover-shoot-take cover behind hill tactics
- armored concrete 5x the current hit points
- 5 times more hitpoints to base Turrets
- 20 times more hitpoints to hangar doors and doors in general (to allow vessels in base hangars again)
- yes, and more guns, of course
- here is the most important demand of all : BASES SHALL NOT BE PLACED INSIDE SHOOTING RANGE OF ANOTHER BASE. This is especially true after the wipe(PVP/PVE rotation), when people can place bases during PVE, then anihilating the enemy base as soon as PVP kicks in.
Summed up, if bases become a fomidable threat again instead of „funny jokes“ like now we could live without offline protection.
So dont take me wrong, i love PVP and to risk something, but not with zero chance faced by a 30 member coward faction with 20 brick SV in reserve.
If single players/small factions are put into a position to challenge the big empires gameplay would clearly become enriched. … even for the antisocial big PVP empires.
If you think that i am wrong please read this discussion, people prove my point.