Are those bases travelling around blowing up entire planets? Are those nukes actively being used to blow up entire planets? Is destroying those bases the only way to stop them from blowing up entire planets?
Oh, yes, because one planet would have been fine. "2 billion people, not a problem. Not worth worrying about. Let me know when it becomes a pattern of behavior."
Ah. Blowing up whole cities in one go - or two - is no issue. Blowing up planets is a problem. Where do you draw the line?
Someone operating a hamburger stand outside of a naval base with nuclear submarines is helping keep those subs in working order, and is thus contributing to making the world a less safe place. Even if it's a pacifist hamburger stand owner who only sells to sailors because he needs to eat, it's still perfectly a-ok to kill him in an air strike on the base because there are nukes there...Or not?
Look, to be fair, obviously this whole discussion is somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Purely realistically, there's no reason ever to have 300K troops in one space station, unless it's intended as a troop transport to conquer whole planets in one go - which is the exact opposite of what the DS tries to accomplish. It's an utterly impractical and illogical weapon.
if we're going about it in any sort of realistic way, the DS perforce has thousands if not tens of thousands of non-voluntary and/or civilian people aboard. You can call them all collateral damage and call it a day - that's military practice, after all. It's pretty much impossible to wipe out a base or a large encampment without hurting (potentially lots of) non-combatants. Some people think collateral should be avoided at all costs, others think "some" collateral damage is acceptable. Once you're in the second group, it all comes down to numbers and haggling.
Nuclear weapons - and the DS - reside firmly in the "forbidden" category of weapons (ABC - atomic, bacterial, chemical) because by their nature, they
cannot discriminate. They're used to take out population rather than fighting capability.
But bear in mind: the DS was the largest troop transport, the largest craft carrier, and a very strong blockade vessel capable of blockading half a planet on its own. Most people on there, and most of its mass and space, had absolutely nothing to do with its huge laser.