If I remember rightly she was the first "large" ship to be released.
Lo, in the words of Will Smith:
What shalt once be the new hotness, must inevitably become that which is old and busted.
View: https://youtu.be/ha-uagjJQ9k?t=17
As new stuff comes along her age becomes more and more obvious, the lessons learned from her design and from ships that came after which are not present in her become glaring...
That said, I like the staircases I think all these lifts in ships are unnecessary and would start to give me claustrophobia if it was the only way between levels in a craft... but it's weird there isn't a staircase up to the 3rd habitation deck - many people think it was designed as an FPS map first and a ship interior second... perhaps it was...?
I like the limited view cockpit but every few patches they turn the inside reflections on the glass up to 11 and you can't see the stars for the reflections of random naked people in the empty seats beside you... (I kid you not one patch had reflections of undressed avatars in their underpants in the crew stations which as you were alone in the ship was weird as heck.)
The Quantum Fuel issue is one that burned quite a few original backers too. There is having a ship that can replenish it's Hfuel, but having the only ship that can replenish Quantum means you have an infinity range explorer ship as long as you keep finding that Q, you have a money making machine as that ship is the only source for the fuel in the 'Verse other than perhaps ground or space based fuel stations... But then Quantaniam was a thing and the 'Farer was going down a notch to be the only ship you could refine Hfuel into Qfuel in as long as you had the Quantainium but the 'Farer wasn't a miner so how to get the raw material... It was suddenly more complicated but not in a way anyone understood because it wasn't in the game to see and understand..
And now, thinking about it, ships like the Carrak and maybe even the Vanguards will really need that kind of Qfuel refineing capability too if they are going to be self sufficient and stay out in the big black for weeks at a time as they are supposed to be able to...? As for the Endeavour? Why would MISCs capital ship not have the Qfuel creation capabilities of one of its large crafts? They build the tech that goes in to one and not including it in the top-if-the-line would just not make sense...? And the Freelancer DUR, another stablemate specializing in exploration, would it not benefit from a Qfuel refinery too?
There is positive scope creep where more potential is added, things get bigger and more exciting and more interesting... but this feels like the closer we get to having refuel/fuel in the game the more potential is being sapped away from the 'Farer. We all know a concept is a concept and concepts can and do change - but that doesn't stop a dashed dream of what may have been being just that. Look at any element of SC which comes to fruition and you will find a percentage of disappointed backers. It's because there are 2 million dreamers each with their own personal impression of what may be, but there can be but one reality. For many, the reality is better than the dream, like Mining. For many the reality is worse than the dream like the Cutlass before the rework fixed it, and totally changed it's initial "fighting freighter" concept.
The one thing that
nearly broke my own personal relationship with the pig-ass-bastard that is the Starfarer (got one as a loaner for the Endeavor) was that external gantry and back door had no locking mechanism. Anyone could enter the ship and multiple times I've taken off and left the armistice zone only to take a machine gun to the back of the head. It got to the point where the second I'd hear shots I'd hit the self destruct, but then the reclaim and lost time... nope that was no good and did start to negatively impact my opinion of the craft... So it was either I gave up on it and waited for the Endeavor to launch and fly that instead, or... So yeah I melted a bunch of ships and got one outright, so I have a spare in the Loaner, and can claim one while flying one. There is nothing quite like flying something the size of an office block around the place and it has 4x s4 pilot controlled guns, which as far as I know is one of the best pilot controlled armaments in a large size ship. I can't hit anything with them, but...
The 'Farer will get refresh passes, I no longer die walking round the corner on the first stairwell which used to be a thing so improvements are constantly being made to her, too.
TL;DR - There Starfarer is the oldest large ship in the game. She's got a lot of history for many backers. With history comes glory, but also baggage, and with the 'Farer it seems she has more baggage than glory for the moment
