Re, the balance discussion. I play against/as neutrino A LOT, they're easily my favorite mod in the community and I have a lot of experience with them (admittedly less in the latest patch because I only recently got my laptop back buuuut....)
Playing as/alongside neutrino has always been a balancing act, pre the missile buffs they were utterly overpowered and a single ship could annihilate entire fleets, after the missile buffs (infinitely reloading salamanders in particular) they became significantly less powerful and more balanced. That said they have always, and still do, suffer from a general lack of anti strike craft. The release of 0.7.0 was kind of a shock to the system going up against fleets of daggers and piranhas that easily tear apart the comparatively lightly armored and thinly shielded neutrino vessels.
Playing AGAINST neutrino has always been something of a cakewalk. If I know I'm going to be fighting them in advance (such as prepping to go to war) I flood my fleets with carriers and missile cruisers and then comfortably slaughter hordes of the poor things. Bombers and wolves with reapers are a vicious counter to the infamously powerful but narrow shields. They're also comparatively cheap. The neutrino phase ships, while irritating, are little threat to swarms of smaller ships and generally have to retreat after the rest of their fleet is wiped out.
/thoughts.