Why do not completely separate the 2 things?
The hangar mechanic works just fine, but I do not understand why fighters are also counted in the fleet counter. Most fighters cost in points is more than the best frigate around, even a tempest. This is counter intuitive: fighters are one-man ships, fighters are little compared to every other ship, fighters are "stored" inside other ship (therefore the hangar mechanic), so why do they damper so much my ability to command a larger fleet? I'm ok with the fleet size soft cap, I actually commanding smaller fleets is funnier than just rollover everything, I simply do not agree with how much fighters weight for my fleet (instead of being the lightest asset of all)
I suppose this is all a matter of balance and such, but with proper tweaking, the complete separation of the two things could be done for the greatest good.