not a bad propossal Jeff, but it fails to adress one of my biggest problems with assigned non-replaceable ships, that is the non "ace" factor.
The non-ace factor hurts attendance, IMHO. When restricted ships are doled out there's no way to do it without somebody being left out and not liking it. Strict Command and Control ship assignment based on a captain's experience and ability with a mixture of politics is the purview of the RL Military naves like USN, RN, French Navy, etc. But in a game, there's no suck-it-up for the team monetary compensation in the form of a military career job involved. So, take that aspect of the game out and leave a door open to, at least, the non-ace nutters to get the ship they want. It gives people the independence to work towards a goal that is concrete in its realization and rewards just most of online games. You grind it out enough and then you'll earn enough prestige to get what you want. That's what many ex-SFCers are doing right now on EVE Online and SWG. Doing many missions towards a goal. There's no middle-man involved controlling their destiny.
The only cost is that sooner or later the dyna will overload with cheese when everyone achieves their big ship goal. By that time it's the dyna's 4 to 5 week mark and it's time to wrap up anyway. But, the road getting there was fun. For me the goal of getting into a fun ship like the I-CCZ was reached early on in SS2. There was no other good ship to look forward too cuz the I-BCV sucked so when my SS2 journey ended I moved onto DomWars. But, it does not mean that I did not have a blast on SS2 while I was there. Cuz I did.