No they don't, if you reduce their CR usage, then what is the point of low tech?
Kiting other ships with more and superior ballistics. High-tech ships could take more CR than low-tech; I just think they eat too much. Some other poster called high CR gobblers "hangar queens" or something.
because high tech is supposed to be better in every category, they need that penalty for being better.
They tend to have better shields and speed, and better one-shot weapons like blasters and plasma cannons. Most have terrible range and must expose themselves to enemy fire to kill other ships.
I've seen this sentiment come up a few times (though it might have been you all those times, Megas - not quite sure), so I just want to explain the rationale. If CR loss is to have a high material cost (beyond just the opportunity cost of not being as ready for a little while), then whatever is consumed to regain CR must cost a lot. And since a large part of the idea of CR is to promote more thoughtful deployment and reward the player that fights riskier battles, it's necessary for CR loss to have a high material cost. Drastically lowering supply costs would largely amount to removing the mechanic.
Some problems: If many supplies are needed to keep ships up and running, then the Atlas or several high-capacity cargo ships are required to collect all of the salvage from battle. (Standing down may not always be an option if fleet fought too hard or lets surviving chunks of XP and loot get away.) Given the current price of supplies, looting as much as possible is very lucrative, and makes the salvage option the no-brainer choice most of the time. Also, if a player wants max Combat and Technology (and takes just enough Leadership to pilot a battleship without losing LR), he does not have much of a choice what to deploy, especially if player wants to pilot a single super ship, like Vindicator from Star Control 2.
This is one reason why I use frigate swarms (plus Atlas and Oxen to haul loot), with Lashers making up about half of my fighting force. They are cheap, fast, and collectively powerful enough to kill the majority of fleets without (or very few) casualties, and they are hurt least by CR. For the occasional system fleet battle, it is time to break out the capitals if I do not want casualties.