Seriously... This has been confusing the crap out of newbs for *years*.

Don't you mean the confusing bots sighted listings in all dynamic hive sectors too?

Sure let's get rid of those too.

better idea: make them dynamically update based on dynamic hive missions, and display as 'unknown' if no active mission for a sector.

Uh, no Earthshine. Better to leave that blank, too much effort for very little gain.
The sector list already gives away a lot of info, no need to drown it in information.
If you do have that, just have in the sector decription (Small Skirmish Active).