A small suggestion, cut the "Beggar", "PMC" and other purposefully under-armed variants of high-tech ships. It is somewhat incongruous to see Hyperions armed only with with some scrap found laying about since if you can get your hands on one of the highest-tech ships in the sector you probably could get a few good Pulse Lasers to go with it. That's not to say that high-tech ships shouldn't have underpowered variants, but they should come in the form of idiotically designed rather than poorly equipped (e.g. a Medusa with Heavy Blasters, Ion Cannons, 3 Antimatter Blasters in the rear turrets, Integrated Point Defense AI, Augmented Engines, and no capacitors or vents), the idea being that these are commissioned by captains with more money than sense.
Another suggestion, though one that is probably far more work than the previous one, is to make it so that the Hegemony and the Tri-Tachyons don't field the worse variants, as they likely have both the wealth and tacticians under their employ to sensibly equip their ships. Pirates and Independents should still field under-equipped or badly designed ships as usual.