Currently to get the mighty radiant, you need Automated Ships skill, that also severely limits the number of radiants you can get... since they are so OP this makes sense...
The problem is this end applying to all other automated ships too, and getting the skill in first place is too hard.
So my suggestion: allow automated ships in player fleet by default, don't even need to limit their numbers, if player wants to make a mighty fleet of derelict (not remnant ships) for example, they should be a ble to.
And then make the automated ships skill give a boost to those ships. Maybe make the skill control the amount of AI officers you can have (And thus force the player to use automated ships without orfficers until they get the skill), or limit the OP points available to the ships, including making the limit flat, so players can build a cheap drone army, but their radiant will be severely limited until they get the skill....
Something like that.
Right now if you want the radiant, you get the skill. And if you went through all this trouble you won't bother with the frigates and stuff.
If you don't want the radiant, you don't waste a lot of skillpoints trying to get this skill... and you won't get the drone frigates even if you wanted to.
I think this state of affairs is sad. Lots of cool designs being wasted with the player not seeing them much.