I prefer the early era myself (and dislike X Ships).
I also wish that Cole had been better at making sure that the newer races included "design flaws" like the older ones. The Hydran for example are specifically geared with weapons that target their traditional enemies. The original core races aren't like that, they have flaws as well as advantages.
I wouldn't say the Hydrans are flawless. Try to take down a starbase with a typical Hydran CA or BCH and you'll see what I mean.
not to mention that they are under powerd and extremly short on drone defence.
I know this from experance.
Consider it in the context I intended namely SFB (as indicated by my referring to Cole).
The Hydrans were designed with all Centre Hull (aka the 7th shield) as an advantage. Their Hellbore was specifically designed to fight the Klingons of the time (neutralize their maneuvering advantage by hitting the glass rear shields) and also the Lyrans (knock down an active ESG).
In SFB a single cruiser was never intended to be able to take on a Starbase, that was a job for an entire fleet. A D7, F-CA or WE couldn't do it either.
As to drone defense the only drones they initially fought were the early Klingon F-Rack and the occasional scatterpack and slow (speed 8 ) drones. For that not only were the paired Ph-G more than adequate but the additional Ph-G of their fighters could handle far more drones.
Remember the fighter Fusion Beams were not range limited like in SFC. Look at the range charts and you will find that the Rangers Fusion Beams plus those of its fighters could knock down a D7's #1 shield at a respectable range.