given the actual risk of ship to ship battle, i wonder if that makes cloaking the most prominant device, thus suddenly encountering another shi would be normal as both are cloaked and then de-cloaked, forcing instantantanious reaction to avoid combat and evade. the cost of doing battle being soo high that i do gues if it becomes, a cat & mouse game of prediction to try & pre-empt an enemy action or position. given the nature of possible technology a ship could simply trigger a solar-mass-ejection of the sun and wipe out a planet in 1 shot.
In The Mote In God's Eye the idea was put forward that the Moties, battling each other for lebensraum at the interior of their sphere of expansion would just "drop a rock into the local sun and wait until the flares died now. So Niven and Pournelle agree with you.
