The regular derelicts DO have the reinforced hull mod built-in or at least did last time I played, so they're slightly better than ones you just bought or salvaged from a battle. Is that worth the cost of restoration? Ehhh, maybe if you're doing a society ship-only run? Although there comes a point when cash is no longer a concern, especially if you have industrial evolution or whichever mod adds the restoration dock building.
...Or they would be, if they kept that when you restore them. Which they don't. (Well, technically, they keep the hullmod, but lose it being built-in, so if you've got your variant set up perfectly before hitting restore, you get to keep the reinforced hull as you just go over the ship's OP limit.)
Would be nice if it either stayed built-in or got removed on restore.
As for the "??????" derelict ships, I'm actually pretty happy with the cruiser; the smaller ones are all of questionable utility, but the cruiser's actually pretty decent; set mine up as anti-armor support with torpedos and a tachyon lance...
...It's still not wrong about the restore being not really worth the price tag, though.
And the Lancer... I dunno, the name just doesn't feel like it fits, to me. Champion worked. Lancer? Lancer would be a better fit for the ?????? cruiser, really. Not sure I've got any actually better suggestions, though. Gladiator? Herald? Dragoon? Nothing really quite evokes all the same implications as Champion did.
