This thread is a remarkable example of a clear shitpost leading to interesting, if not very fruitful discussion.
On the one hand, it is enlightening to see people defend exotic ships such as the Centurion which I've never even given a second glance. On the other hand, most of the discussion seems to be doomed to be fruitless because tier-lists are inherently useless beyond gauging what is readily apparent.
Obviously, Tempests, Omens and Falcon (P)s are bound to end up in S-tier as they are proven (by Cums, Thaago and Vayra, respectively), to just wreck face when employed correctly. Or the Astral, which is such a no-brainer to get it's actually a challenge in itself to go without it.
And of course everybody hates the Buffalo Mk. II as it is just a hunk of junk.
Most ships, apart from the most obvious ones, can, however be suprisingly effective or disappointing. Sometimes both things at once. Case in point: the Aurora.
I have had my heart broken by it several times when going against [REDACTED] fleets and noticing, much to my suprise, that my reliable flanking ship just got deleted too fast for me to even register the comms chatter to do anything about it.
Similarly, the Odyssey which can at times roll up an entire flank by itself, but boy, if it gets caught by a tanky capital, it's not gonna be pretty.
Other ships might not suprise you, such as the Wolf. It's a frigate, alright. It'll probably die. That's what you expect.
It comes down to personal preference, most of the time and finding a juicy combination of ships to make them really shine.
I, for one, don't like to use frigates that much in encounter battles much because they are just too squishy and their ppt is too short.
But give me some SO Hounds for chowing down on the fleeing remnants of the fleet I just defeated any day of the week.
Destroyers as a whole don't really cut it for me in the later game, as they cannot slug it out effectively enough when compared to cruisers.
But that is just my preference.
And that's the richness of this game, that you can make basically anything work, at least for a time and under the right circumstances, like the Venture.
All of this discussion is kind of spoiled for me, however, as there are so many great and vanilla-friendly mods that I cannot even remember when I went full vanilla the last time.