I'm not so sure. As has been pointed out, just about all other space station rules, including campaign rules, are specifically either re-stated or contradicted in the P&P chapter about space stations, but it says nothing on this point. What it does say is that space stations no longer cost triple to build, nor do they cost 5 RR points per turn.
And what that means is that if you do assume that the rule about the strategic target being lost only if the station is present and defeated is still in force, it ruins campaigns. For the same price as a war level ship, you build a station. Thereafter, if the opponent attacks that strategic target, you put a -3 modifier on the roll for scenario PL. Unless one of the correct scenarios is rolled and the opponent puts in a +3 modifier and the PL roll is high enough, the target can never be captured. There's nothing in the rules preventing you from putting a war level station on every strategic target you own, and there's no longer a penalty for doing so. Which means once you've built all your bases and the opponent has done the same, the campaign becomes very boring. No scenario is worth playing except Annihilation, Call To Arms or Space Superiority, and then only if the PL is high enough.
There are two ways out of this. One is to devise a lot of house rules. The other is to assume that because P&P does not say that the station must be present and defeated for the strategic target to be captured, that rule is no longer in effect.
