Ok this really makes pirates usefull only to the player .When playing against the computer. it will never put bounty on someone with 0 bounty if there are other choices.
seems logical at first.I tried this with teams locked and unlocked. works both ways .
I just played A medium map with 3 opponents and only once when i went afk for a sec did i have bounty on my head ,simply by keeping at least 2 peoples bounty positive besides me. i never get targeted.

I took A screenshot of the timeline to show you ,although the bar is rising .the bounty is actually zero for me all the time except one in the middle of the timeline it went to 500.(I had to drop the kids at the pool)I went afk for 5 mins .
either way this current situation basically makes it so I and I alone have control of where the pirates go in single player matches
which is kinda cheesy.

The A.I should somehow notice this tactic .or the A.I should pay bounty more often ,rather than wait till a raid is immenent
it just detracts from the intended purpose of the pirates in my opinion
i mean most of the time all I see of pirates is when they cross my planet to phase into their true target
of course this would never happen when playing with humans

please note this is almost 5 hours of play.