No explination required.

I'm pretty sure he was just making a snide/joking remark about the skill itself, nothing aimed at you.

Surrender is best used in solo combat with your tank companion whenever you pull aggro. If the fight is long-lasting (Though doubtful) then use it again when it comes up. In a group scenario, especially in operations it is your tool to aid your tank in aggro managment. After your initial burst (I usually give myself about 15-30 seconds depending on how geared the tank is) you should use it even if you don't have aggro because it reduces your overall threat regardless. Afterwards it should be a part of your priority/rotation list and used every cooldown to ensure your threat effectively 'flatlines' while the tank's threat rises so you never pull a boss onto you unless its mechanics cause it to.

Incidentally if you're going scrapper it's worth doing enough of the easier HM flashpoints so you can get two pieces of Tionese gear for the 15% increased backblast crit chance. (Gloves and boots are the cheapest I believe and most aesthetically appealing change) Then just pick up a couple of pieces with the mods you want and swap em around. Maelstrom and Taral V probably your best bets although I'm not sure how the Esseles now after its changes but it was tougher pre 1.3.

It's not even close to a useless ability. If you're expecting it to net you kills and rack up damage easily then you're looking at it the wrong way. XS flyby is an ability that's meant to cause that fear factor. It's supposed to make the enemy have to waste time finding a workaround. If you have smart teammates they'll use knockbacks to hit enemies in to it but otherwise you're meant to deny an area with it. I've even used it as cover before. On voidstar I dropped it and ran into the fire without being noticed and defused the bomb. It has a plethora of uses, only in PvE are you looking at it for direct CC/DPS, in PvP you need to think about how a player would react to seeing it and use it to herd them into favorable positions for your team.

Has anyone seen chests in the Lawless Zone post patch? The notes said they've been added back in but I haven't come across any. Even did a bit of PvP (Although not much with so few people) and still didn't see anything.