The benefits of this being possible far outweigh the negatives. One of the most hilarious moments in the game for me was when an enemy destroyer attempted to leave the battle, rammed right into one of my ships and started doing that kind of drift. It plowed right through my fleet a couple times, tossing ships all over the place before swinging far enough to leave the battle.
edit. On a more serious note, I probably shoot out the engines of escaping enemy ships in half of the battles I fight, sometimes they have already engaged full burn before flameout. Ships not becoming invisible when they engage full burn is one of the details about the game I really appreciate.