It's a shame this mod is so overlooked, so I'll throw in some of my thoughts.
First off, this mod is definitely not balanced versus vanilla, and that's totally okay; though it may scare people away.
There are a lot of ships here, and while their support ships have somewhat dubious quirks, their combat ships are death machines. Some of their combat freighters can rival other faction warships, and their warships are armed similar to a ship class one level above them.
So, if you want a challenge, but aren't ready to face Templars just yet, this is a good mod to use. If you want a faction that gives you a leg up over the others, this is a great mod to use. If you're looking to build a balanced game, you may want to look somewhere else. If you're a stickler to in-game lore, well... I had my aft handed to me by Hello Kitty and a rainbow.
If I had a complaint, it would be that there aren't many variants for the ships, so you'll be fighting the same configuration over and over again. SS+ changes that though.