It's true! I managed to defeat the boss with my Engi cruiser (on Easy though). You unlock a pretty cool Federation Frigate for defeating the boss, the Frigate has this awesome artillery laser that passes right through shields and cleaves a line of damage across the enemy ship.
That's cheating The game is meant to be played on Normal! Personally, I haven't played a single game on Easy!
When an anti-piracy method is affecting the game for people who legitimately bought it and causing other people not to buy the game, there is obviously something wrong with it!