Does anyone even DO this mission?
Why use.. what.. 700ish energy on getting an item that will be blown up in seconds?

very rarely... by the time it becomes feasible energywise your opponents just laugh at thetacron mines. It's usually people who overestimate their usefulness or just have lots of spare energy that use them.

On the off-chance that an enemy pvp'er relies soley on stryll trap probes rather than checking out your actions, you can appear to have the usual 4 traps that include a halc rather than quantum, krio, omicron and thetacron.

Not that this ever works but you get to feel a little clever.

Actually, if you stockpile them, spamming TMTs is actually quite effective.

I beg to differ with you. It worked quite well for me on a couple very experienced players. I even had actions over 3/5/5. I slapped on a Hallows Bane Trap to show 5 active traps.

also if you are actually 3/5/5 but cant use a halc it will work.

I dont see them is to good for upper ranks , but if i ever find my self on a planet runnning full buffs with a C amp on I may use the 100 or so I have just to piss the attacker off. Spam them with Gemmis popping nano's would be kinda fun .

maybe this idea for higher ranks:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=26867

Almost got disabled from a Thetacron while doing my weekly PvP run once... luckily I had less than 200 hull left to repair it. Though I still think it should give more damage than the current one for players to use them.

Their good for that extra kick when someone's going after you and can be a good bluff for when people use trap probes on you. Other than that I've only seen it in action once when I pvp.