Kotori said:
I don't see how it is safer.
I've worked in trucking and shipping before, so I'm assuming some knowledge I shouldn't. Sorry 'bout that.
Right now, salvage crews -- at least KFY crews -- are using converted power armor or just massive ships to do the dirty work of actually collecting parts and what not and bringing them to a docking bay. Large ships can afford this.
Smaller vessels probably don't have the best equipment (tiny shuttles, drones, power armor, et cetera) to drag stuff out of a big mess of crap. So instead they rely on subpar stuff, such as a battered tug or retracting claws, or they wait out a piece somehow and directly guide it into their open cargobay somehow. These two ways of doing it are somewhat dangerous, as they rely on the craft to be at a fairly close distance.
This allows a smaller vessel to kind of pick out a piece of what they want from an otherwise unapproachable wreck. This way they are not risking crew and equipment by having them storm the wreck. For general loading usage, a ship could transfer cargo easily between itself and another vessel simply by gently ejecting the cargo and then focusing a MIC on that cargo.
This is especially useful for very small vessels that lack any appreciable method of dragging cargo into a hold. Instead of sending out guys in spacesuits ala Firefly, you remote-control your MIC and guide something straight into a hold.
Essentially, larger ships don't desperately need this. Smaller vessels, depending on their mission profile, absolutely could.