Not a strawman.
If I wait next to my station until an invader comes, then I intercept it, I want my battlestation to attack the invader with me, and it does if contact is close enough.
If an enemy intercepts my fleet when it is almost next to their station, they all attack my fleet as expected. Can be an annoyance.
If there is symmetry in rules, then if an enemy battlestation does not back up the fleet that intercepted mine, then it stands to reason that if my fleet intercepts an invader, then my battlestation would not back my fleet up due to rules symmetry. If that happened, we can expect complaint in patch notes or new topics in Suggestions or Bug Reports about "Help! My battlestation is not helping me!" or something similar. All because the current rules are inconvenient when our fleet is invading the enemy. I merely pointing out the downsides if rules symmetry is enforced to make things fair.
You are missing underlying reasoning for why TS has stated he thinks it should be changed. He is not attacking rules symmetry.
"This makes no sense because my ships should be able to stay out of range of the space station."
In other words, battlestation should not participate in offensive because it has no ability to move.
For Suggestions or Bug Reports about "Help! My battlestation is not helping me!" or something similar answer would be simple: because it has no ability to move, you have to be attacked to get help from battlestation
If you still don't understand the difference, I'll try an analogy.
By law police officer can attack a criminal, but why can not a criminal then attack police officer too? Because the law states that arrest is an action allowed on a criminal only.
In discussed situation, if law allows everyone to attack everyone instead, the TS is arguing with the reasoning for why the law allows it, not the symmetry.
This 100%
If I attack a ship near a station friendly to it, yes 100% the station should be involved.
If a ship near a station friendly to it attacks me, no, the station should not be able to join it in the attack. The station is immobile.
The same goes for if the enemy attacks me.
If I am attacked near a friendly station, the station should be involved.
If I attack an enemy near a friendly station, I should not get a free station involved in the fight. It is immobile and cannot come to my aid.
Too often I see weak fleets turn to flee to a station, then suddenly turn bloodthirsty the second they get into range of the station. If they do this the options to me should be as follows:
1. Disengage
1a. If the enemy chooses to engage without the station I can choose to engage them without the station involved or disengage while they harry me or perform a Story Point combat maneuver.
1b. If the enemy chooses not to engage without the station I can disengage without penalty as they were too weak to harry me on their own.
2. I have the option to attack if I want.
3. Story point option to trap them away from the station.
If I choose to engage an enemy within the range of a station my options for battle should be similarly altered:
1. Disengage (This can bring up a new set of options depending on enemy decisions)
1a. If enemy chooses to engage the station, they can harry my retreat.
1b. If the enemy chooses not to engage the station, it's a clean disengage.
2. I have the option to attack if I want.
3. Story point to open a fight to maneuver the main fight over to the station. (Need to defeat X CR to complete this action based on relative fleet size) Upon completion of this objective, able to retreat and start a new battle with the station involved.