I can vouch for both sides on the model issue.
Including models with a shiplist like this would give us a nice variety to look at, but it involves big downloads, as I well know. About a year ago I had a little team that was working on such a mod, with models from Fleetdock 13. It is on my site now as a TOS Mod for OP.
FS has brought us a very cool shiplist. Now I am not an SFB person at all, but I am having a blast with this thing. Try this shiplist with Co-op Ace. It will keep you up all night. I support this shiplist in its current form.
What could happen is that someone takes this shiplist, leaves the strings and shipnames as they are, but adds in new models in place of the stock ones. Maybe call it 'OP+ shiplist with models' or something. There seems to be a demand for it, of course any release of such a thing would as a courtesy would require Firesoul's blessing.
Just some random thoughts...