The biggest complaint I've heard about the PPD in SFB is the fact that it's an "auto-mizia" weapon. Comeon, 4 pulses, over 4 impulses, each pulse from a multiple PPD ship counts as it's own volley etc... People complain that it's unfair to have a weapon that naturally takes advantage of a particular strategy.
2x PPD hitting range 10 bare hull for all 4 pulses = 8 sets of 4 rolls on the DAC.
It's an interesting mechanic, and it results in a lot of weapon-killed but still functional ships.
What makes it so annoying in SFC is that the pulses hit faster than the DAC resets.
Without the PPD, the iSC's nothing more than a glorified Gorn-clone. The I-torps aren't special enough IMO to write home about. They're nothing more than packs of severely limited Pl-F...
Anyway, proxie torps, Kaufman retrogrades, and large / floating map missions are the bane of the ISC. So are drones and fighters...
Now, the SFC-creation Caveat IIIs are not the best creation I've seen come down the pipe, 3 gatlings per fighter in a 4 fighter flight equals more range 0 damage than just about anything in the game, short of a DN-sized alpha strike... Being limited in what we have available as replacements for the gatlings (either full ship-sized Pl-F or broken Dro-D) makes the life of someone attempting to seek balance without cloning existing fighters very difficult...