There are few ships that make good use of Unstable Injector. But for general use, the OP cost and shot range loss kills it. For AI, shot range is better than speed.
I think this depends on the stage of the game and what the expected enemies are. Both shot range and speed are very important, and they are linked with each other in value, but early I will take speed over shotrange for frigates and destroyers. If my ships are faster than the enemy, then its much harder for them to be killed by swarming enemy forces - a cloud of pirate frigates vs my fleet with like 4 ships, range is way less important than speed! Similarly, if my ships are faster then inferior enemies can't get away when I give eliminate orders.
Midgame things change because the expected enemies get slower and the numbers become more even: the challenge isn't so much avoiding getting swarmed, its 'punching up' and having your frigates/destroyers stand off enemy destroyer/cruisers/capitals. Since they are already faster than (most of) their targets and (usually) outranged to begin with, minimizing the amount of time they are exposed without firing back becomes my most important metric. In that case, its a balance of distance lost vs speed gained, which depends on their range (and ITU counts here since the player usually has it by now) and speed. Frigates still get UI, and brawling destroyers with shorter ranged weaponry (Medusa, Shrikes, mortar/railgun hammerhead for example) could go either ITU or UI, while longer ranged destroyers get ITU.
I have a hard time justifying UI on cruisers or capitals because the amount of speed they gain is the lowest, but the amount of range they lose is the highest (as it multiplies by DTC/ITU as well as base).
For lategame I've swapped my destroyers to ITU: they are mainly fighting ships much more powerful than them (6+ skill capitals, alpha core brilliants/radiants, etc) and might not even be officered depending on if I'm going for a support doctrine or best of the best build, so they can't afford to be engaging close in (unless the whole fleet strategy is swarming).
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If player has carrier skills, sure, the bonus is too small compared to the skills. But what if the player cannot get carrier skills due to points? In my case, I have no more points left for Leadership skills. (And if I did, Crew Training and Wolfpack Tactics are more tempting.)
I do think EDC is a bit weak and it should be restored or OP cost made cheaper, but for those who cannot get the carrier skills, it is the only option for boosting rate. Because of no Leadership, I grudgingly try to save enough OP for EDC, even if it is weak; but I would love to see that hullmod be more on par with the skill like various other boosts like Hardened Shields for shields.
Anyone
can get the carrier skills. They are tier 0 with no prerequisites. If you chose not to do so it means you prioritize the other skill picks above a very large increase in carrier effectiveness. There's nothing wrong with that, but that's the choice.
