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To be fair that is my assumption, but it seems likely given the stats, specifically meta level.

Well, if you can't touch the fitting and have to do it via stats, you'd just have to flat-out nerf Damage Controls across the board. Hard. I'd be fine with that (like I said, I'm tired of it being a must-fit module and I guess CCP is also), but I think that sort of nerf would have large portions of the playerbase screaming bloody murder.

Right now, what they are trying to do is nerf the modules themselves, but counterbalance that with a buff to hull structure. I think that's a fairly reasonable path to take, honestly, even though that too will cause lots of extra rebalancing. A flat-out nerf to DCUs (with nothing to compensate) would also throw lots of balance out of whack, so there is no easy, problem-free solution here.

I think this is how the Hecate will play out:

Currently:
0% base resist, 60% DCII resist, 33.3% defensive mode resist.
The way resists combine, it's not 60% + 33.3% = 93.3%.
Nor is it 60% + 60%*33.3% = 80.3%.
Rather, incoming damage is resisted by 60%, then the remaining damage is resisted by 33.3%.
So the true hull resist of the Hecate is 60% + (1-60%)*33.3% = 73.3%.
(It's worth noting that there's actually no "first" or "then" in this calculation - reducing damage by 33.3% first then the remaining damage by 60% yields the exact same final resist of 73.3%)

After proposed changes:
33.3% base resist, 40% DCII resist, 33.3% defensive mode resist.
33.3% is resisted first.
Of the remaining 66.6% incoming damage, 40% is then resisted - that's an additional 26.6% damage mitigated, for a total of 60%, meaning 40% of the damage is now making it rhough. (This is why the new hull bonus + new DCII provides the exact same 60% hull resist as we have today.)
Of the remaining 40% of incoming damage, 33.3% of that is resisted - which is a further 13.3% of the original damage that is prevented.
33.3% + 26.6% + 13.3% = 73.3%, exactly the same as before.

The above is a roundabout way of saying that these changes will have no effect whatsoever on the Hecate's effective hull HP. This is neither a buff nor a nerf for the Hecate.

* - CCP descriptions say "33%" in various places, but the way the math works out it's clear they're actually using 1/3 as the number, not 0.30.

As for making DCU 's less mandatory, the DCU still provides better armour resists than a third EANM and is the only module to add resists to shield and the hull bonus is still pretty huge. The only ships i can see not using DCU 's are ships that didnt use them before.

Making them passive is apparently how they were always meant to be, but maybe they need nerfed harder.

It's more like 15 pages but if you feel like starting all over, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you.

Quoting a very old post from when the DCU got implemented, the original dev (i don't remember who) said they wanted the DCU to be an active module with a "long cycle" and very little cap requirement to avoid to encourage AFK play styles and actually reward the player from being there, turning it on every jump / undock, compared to the player autopiloting afk.

People mostly commented about the effects of this choice against cap warfares doctrines, and the answer was that with so little cap requirements and the server ticks it was high unlikely to have it turned off.

I actually agree with this old dev post, and I think the DCU should stay an active module.

On the freighter argument, it is true that with a 5 weeks release schedule they can revert easily any buff they did, or buff something else on the gank side, if it turns out it destroys that play style.

I think this thread is more about "are we killing some fits with this change?" and "do you think making it passive is a good idea", rather than talking about freight balance and ganking profitability

I don't care what feedback ccp wants. I'm giving the feedback that is relevant to my experience in game.

See that makes sense to me. Absolutely, and that's a reason I can get behind.

But then why not just buff freighters structure HP rather than changing a module that affects almost all ships, and then add some knee-jerk reaction like changing the base HP of ALL SHIPS to compensate for the problems caused by it?

I know the answer but I feel like it's probably rude to point out that this was a make-work project for some bored devs.

^^ Exactly! Unnecessarily complicated for what they wanted to achieve. And there will be negative consequences to other ships because of it. :P