I have to admit, one of the reason they could use it against me were because i prelaunched by 30 minutes
However i think it's better that ppl are able to escort someone, instead of being able to lower cap without even loosing ships. Atleast by escorting you can't avoid a battle, unlike sending ships that won't cap. And if there's a choice between 2 kinda ways of abusing the rules, then i prefer the one were a battle is involved.