Intergalactic Summit

Not quite the situation. The Thukker aren't paying these mercenaries to protect these planets, they're just saying "Here's a bunch of free districts, go crazy." So now these mercenaries are protecting their own territory that they own, and the Thukker hope that will discourage the Angels from attacking the planets as that would mean attacking the mercenaries.

Oh, no, they have value. If I am not mistaken, it lets them produce their own clones amongst other things. That could give them some more autonomy. Also, ground based infrastructure could have ramifications for local orbital infrastructure such as that used by capsuleers, and the two groups are able to collaborate (and some capsuleers have been supporting ground operations in border zones for international warfare), so these districts are likely going to be of some value as joint venture.

I actually wonder if the Thukker Tribe is banking on this collaboration to bring additional capsuleers as well.

The districts do have great value to Mercenary Corporations, or even hybrid corporations as the law currently dictates that monetary transfers between Capsuleers and Mercenaries is prohibited. However with this new development Mercenaries whom own a district now have the ability to passively accrue ISK on a level they never had before. I am not sure of the specific numbers but I believe that each district earns something along the lines of 20 million ISK per cycle (im not sure if the cycles are days or weeks).

If you look at SVER with its entire planet of eight districts, that means an influx of 160 million isk per cycle, and while this may be a small sum to a Capsuleer corporation, this is a huge amount of money for a Mercenary group. In our Corporation our average Merc runs with between 40k-210k worth of equipment on one Clone, and they usually run in groups of at least 3. If each of those three are equipped with say 40k worth of gear, and each loses say four clones, that is 120k in loses. Each battle that they run pays usually 200k plus, so they have netted 80k in profit.

Districts allow a Corporation to lessen, or altogether remove, the financial strain on their Mercenaries and even encourage them to take risks that perhaps they would not have taken on their own. For example, becoming a Tanker or Pilot is not only costly in the terms of training costs, but also in fielding a well fitted Tank or Dropship and if left to your own earnings becomes a cost that if you have a few bad contracts, can be bankrupting. However if a Corp can "eat" these costs for a pilot or driver it allows for experimentation.