So I've been trying out the 20 DP Eagle with 700 base flux, starting a fresh game with those stats modded in, and playing my usual iron man run style.
To sum it up, I've been fleet wiping a lot, and getting that free frigate consolation prize. My assessment of what I can handle appears to be way off at the stage where I have my first cruiser or three. Eagles are not, say, Furies or even Medusa. I've come to the realization I've been avoiding Eagles as an early or even mid-game ship for a long time now.
Early to mid-game (which I haven't gotten out of yet in this run, because of a fair number of wipes), the 20 DP vs 22 DP makes no difference. I didn't mod the Eagle any cheaper in terms of credits, and it's still a burn 8 cruiser which means it slows your entire fleet down when you acquire one. When it gets destroyed, and assuming it is not a fleet wipe (because I perhaps transferred to a Fury which was under AI control) I'm only saving about 1200 credits on the supplies for a full recovery (less once d-mods are accounted for), and we're talking 200 credits per deployment.
I think it finally struck home when I was trying to catch and kill a mule with a non-SO build. The mule is baseline slightly faster, pulls away when its flux gets high, and tanks long range kinetics just fine on its armor. Even if an Ion beam arc knocks its engines out, it's moving away at speed 60 (plus whatever skills it was benefiting from - might have had UI as well). I was using a sniper setup, using 3 Hypervelocity Drivers, an Ion Beam, and 2 Phase Lances with ITU and Advanced Optics built in. The Phase Lances, which were my anti-armor, took forever to get into range, all the while I'm moving away from my fleet for like 30 to 60 seconds, which feels terrible. However, when I was changing focus from ship to ship to stay with the fleet however, none of the enemy would die, since they had plenty of time to back off, and I just couldn't close the distance to phase lance range quick enough, or alternatively stay there. Overloading and then ignoring the Mule just means it comes back tried to launch those Salamanders again from behind.
Even though I was personally piloting the Eagle, I was typically not top damage scorer. I just spent too much time trying to close into things. Not only was the Fury out damaging me, it was typically twice the damage of the other AI Eagle when I had all 3. One fight against 6 pirate cruisers and 12 smaller ships, for example was Fury with 32% of the damage, my Eagle 28%, followed by an Eagle that was destroyed at 13%. Rest to 4 high tech frigates. Apparently, my personal piloting can't make up the difference in actual ability kill between the two types of ships (Fury had Heavy Blaster + Ion cannon + Anti-matter blaster + 2 Proximity launchers).
If I go SO, then there a number of ships which are just hard counters to the Eagle, like hypervelocity/mauler hounds (1000 range on 180 speed > 450 range on at max 175 speed and on average 145), beam Tempests, even Wolves can typically out speed an Eagle with phase skimmer, and once the percentage bonuses from skills start getting added in, you can forget it. +10% on a Wolf is +15 speed, +10% on an Eagle is +5. An SO Eagle's closing speed is just not high enough, so my flux is higher than I'd like by the time I get to actual firing range on most enemy cruisers. SO Furies, SO Hyperions, SO Medusa can eliminate that distance in the blink of an eye. I'd argue even the 17 DP burn drive Eradicator is better than the Eagle, simply because it has a "go fast forward" button, and just as many medium ballistics, plus small ballistics and missiles to back them up. It can at least seal the deal, while tanking with its armor, but the Eagle doesn't really have that option. However, I will reiterate, dropping the Eagle's DP cost doesn't actually help early to mid-game. You could make it 10 DP early game, and I still won't be able to make it work well, assuming it was the same credit cost, burn speed and fuel usage.
You need a frigate or two as escorts you can order to go kill that frigate you just got to high flux, but then you have to do that for every single one. And as mentioned earlier, Eagles are bad at fighting capitals, lacking any long range hard hitting weapons other than the Heavy Mauler, which has pretty bad DPS. But they're also pretty bad at dealing with smaller ships I'm finding in the early game. Where as a Medusa or Fury can get in close, drop a bunch of burst damage, and get out while destroying at least one frigate, an Eagle ends up needing 2 or 3 times the amount of time, and just cannot reduce the enemy fast enough to not get surrounded. It's a tanky line cruiser which really does need a full battle line, backed up by things like large missiles and bomber wings. I think, even with the current stats, it is a mistake to try and acquire early game for me, unless I'm getting it for "free". Even then, I'm not sure it's worth the burn drop compared to grabbing, say, 2 more destroyers, or a Fury or Falcon (P or not).
I'll note Maneuvering Jets is poorly supported by Systems Expertise (+25 average speed becomes +30 average speed bonus, which is like the effect of basic Helmsmanship). The other high tier combat skill, Missile Specialization, feels extremely weak when combined with only two small missiles on a 20 DP ship. Compare to the crazy buffs Phase Skimmer and Plasma Burn get with System Expertise, or the missile benefits a Champion, Eradicator, Fury, or Dominator get with Missile Specialization. So there's no good high tier combat skill to take with them that obviously gives them a big push in effectiveness. The fact that Manuevering Jets is a temporary bonus to it's average speed means Helmsmanship and Coordinated Manuevers are 33% less effective than if it just didn't have a ship system and had a base speed of 75.
It's like every part of the design of the game just interacts poorly with the Eagle's design. Skills treat it as weaker or apply to only half the ship. Its loadouts are split. It's got medium energies but not the speed to use the high DPS options. Low DPS beams in general are a weaker choice, especially early to mid-game when you can't mass them. It's medium long range mount options are low DPS, so poor against capitals. It's seems to me to be intended as line cruiser as part of much larger fleet, and to be designed to have other ships do the killing blow (long range missile ships, bomber wings). Eagle really needs a selling point to entice me to buy it at this point. As it stands, I'm going to be spending the credits on 2 or 3 destroyers or even a Falcon instead.
Having been playing with it, I feel like the Eagle's greatest sin when compared many other ships is they're just not that fun to fly. Eagles are a basically a pile of mis-matched stats, with an ability on top which doesn't viscerally feel faster. It is technically faster, but it just doesn't have the same feel or effect on combat as a burn drive dive for the kill or a plasma burn dodge of a wave of incoming ordinance. Manuevering Jets on the Eagle certainly doesn't let me dodge a Gauss shot or catch that retreating Hound, for example. It's effect in play doesn't feel significant or noticeable. Even at 20 DP and 700 flux dissipation, I believe you're going to get a number of reports that the Eagle is still too weak.