The real practical definition of "Early Era" in SFB terms is that time when the Romulans didn't have warp tech. Once they had access to the Klingon tech, and became warp capable, with WB+ and KR, then Mid Era and the lead up to the General War is upon us.
In D2 play, the ONLY THING that you get from a change in era's is faster drones, and those default dates are wrong too.
So when somebody says lets start in Early, this literally means thats the Romulans should start in sub-light ships. Early Mid-Era is what they really mean, but most people don't think about this when they can only relate to the Early-Mid-Late button in GSA/Skirmish mode, and the ships that they get access to.
Now how neat would it be to be able to specifically set the year range in GSA/skirmish and not just take the preset blocks?