Maybe the definition of "actively participating" doesn't work when it comes to some ships.
Take the bomber, for example. It's obviously designed for defending a position. Most of its weapons fire out of the rear of the ship and remain there. It's slow and no amount of pressing the f3 key will make it faster.
And while people can sometimes tell the difference between "new and trying" and "not trying", computer software is really bad at nuance. I know, writing computer software is my job.
So, someone saying that you "never" can be kicked if you are "actively participating" runs the risk of not being able to support that absolute statement. In the two times I was kicked, I was moving toward the enemy, trying to set up my mines. That's what bombers do. But if your definition of actively participating is to just madly fly into a group of enemies and be destroyed, then no I wasn't dong that.
If I was going to play that way, I'd just fly into a wall and be done with it.
At any rate, vote kick is fundamentally harassment. And since I'm a paying customer, it's much more than that. Selling someone a product and then preventing them from being able to consume that product might be called fraud in some courts. I'm amazed no one has thought to challenge it with a class action lawsuit.
Maybe that will change.