I think an in-game messaging feature would be ideal. Right now (at least as far as I know), the only way to reach out to anyone is via Alliance chat.
For now, you’ll need to message someone on line, fb or this forum… I know it’s not as convinient, especially for shield checking.
I think there should be messaging but only within an Alliance. If messaging were open to everybody, there’d be problems of unwanted messaging such as taunts and insults.