Lets face it, we've taken the SFC community far beyond the original intention or design of SFC2/OP because we make custom maps, decide who wins by virtue of victory conditions, limit DNs, assign them, etc... the PP system is something they made so that in a disorganized server things would work themselves out. But we're past that now.
The alternative is to quasi-RPG it all and have "fleets" with loose "command structures" and assign people ship class types (though maybe not specific hulls, except for CCs and up). Make the whole thing order-of-battle based, and so there would not only be a limited number of DNs and BCHs but even a limited number of CCs and ships like missile bombardment craft. No offense to anyone, but it seems weird to me to always be facing off in D5Ds, and NACs, and CAD+'s and PF tenders when it oughta be F-CC vs K-D7 kinda stuff a LOT more often.
I think it might make it more fun if some of the serious players got to square off in "lowly" DDs and FFs instead of BCHs and DNs for a change... We've got a lot of great ship captains. Why not give them a challenge and see what they can do in a light frigate instead of a battleship? Make the game about low DV hexes and capturing stuff, advancing ground, and working as a team, not playing 800 missions in one hex to flip a base or something.
Or, to address what J'inn was saying, if you lose your CA, it SHOULD matter, no matter how many hours you've put in, because your ship was destroyed. If the Enterprise gets blown up, then its blown up! (snicker)
You get stuck in a refit CL for a couple of "years". Not to make it so one side woud totally run the other over, mind you, but I think a combo of low DV hexes and fleets that more closely resemble the stuff from the board games might make things less predictable and more interesting, plus it would probably be harder for any one side to win so easily because, in war, there's a lot of ways to lose.
It couldn't hurt to try at least. The whole point of the thing is to have fun, right? I have the most fun when it's not the same old "run the AI over, wash, rinse, repeat" routine. Or PvP fights that aren't determined by missiles or tractor-anchoring the enemy.