We had an interesting situation come up in the regional tourney at GameKastle Mountain View yesterday.
Essentially, I had 2 TIE bombers plus Col Jendon sitting at distance one of the sole remaining ship on the board (an interdictor with 2 or 3 hull remaining and no shields facing the bombers) at the start of the squad phase just before my tabling. My squads were completely on the station and the 1st player opponent moved squads into range to try stop the attack.
The special rule reads
The station does not Obstruct attacks and does not have the ability to discard damage card or recover hull points
My opponent said they were now engaged and couldn't attack, my point of view was they weren't engaged because the special rule only removes obstruction on attacks but determining engagement is a completely separate step from an attack in my opinion and would follow all the normal rules interactions between squads and obstacles.
I don't think anyone argues that this station is no longer an obstacle just because it doesn't repair or obstruct attacks i.e. grav shifts can move it, Brunson would be able to trigger off it, and Damaged Controls crit effect would resolve.
So where are all the rules lawyers on this topic? Would then we ignore obstacles and engagement rules because there is a specific rule that says no obstruction while attacking?
Our TOs never came to a ruling so in the interest of time, we decided to check if it would even matter one way or the other. I was able to miraculously roll 3 hit/crit dice, bruson shut one down, and the other 2 were braced/redirected so it didn't end up mattering. but I would like a ruling on it because I have been planning on the station preventing engagement with my bombers.