that they are trying to encourage people to come to the site rather than just have ports sit for months with no activity.Ā When commish free trading was on weekends...it was to encourage people to come on the site during slower times... now that this is gone, they may be looking for ways to keep players playing the game somehow.
Many ports simply sit for months and months (or years) with no activity - players 'quit' the game, others simply 'retire' and don't play any longer, so personally, to eventually 'weed' these ports out of the system I don't find that bad... I don't know 'how often' you will be charged 5%, but to me - it seems simple to come on after a month or two, make a few trades, and not worry about being charged anything.
They want people here...trading... since the data they sell to studios, etc., is fresh, current, and valuable...hence they have to reward those that are providing that data to them (by keeping your port active)... that's simply MY take on it, though.