Despite the multiple nerfs to escort missions they are still riddled with problems. Huge pay off for a one sector hop. Heck, a couple of years ago I got a voy for a million cr from Ukari L2 to Arta Bwhatever. Not only that but so many of the good ones push the player into UIT space rather than out into Grey. And with the prevalence of cargo scanners on common ships, it's too easy to pick and choose the best ones to take. My suggestions...

1) Use cargo spoofers on all escort transport ships to hide the identity of the cargo on board
2) Make the payout related more to the distance / risk traveled
3) Incur a cost for aborting or failing a mission
4) Redesign the routing so that there are more escorts running to and from the Grey stations to Grey stations as well as into nation space.

I disagree strongly with point 1 because giving every convoy spoofers would make piracy lame. Much better to penalize aborted missions instead.

I wouldn't mind giving every convoy a 1/20 chance of employing spoofers though. It just needs to stay a small minority.

I agree with your other points.

+1 to penalize aborted missions.

-1 to anything that makes cargo scanners less valuable.