I have found, from flying in all manner of tiers, that a lot of the problems with ships are linked to problems in matchmaking.
For example, I recently found myself flying a Rank 3 ship in a “pure” Tier 1 match, and I found that match to be absolutely brilliant. It was an intense match, and hugely good fun because of the utter lack of healing available (T1 Engi can’t heal hull!). By contrast, most of the T1 games I’ve been forced into have been a chore because they haven’t been Tier 1 matches - I’ve been flying T1 ships, but matched against T2.
This is why I push for Fixed Tiers - a lot of the problems with ships are situational, and come and go based on what they are matched against.
The big offenders to my mind are:
Rank 4 - Underpowered compared to Rank 5-6 ships, but potentially gamebreaking when matched against Rank 1-3.
Rank 7 - Underpowered compared to Rank 8-9 ships (especially ECM, which only Rank 9+ can properly shield against), gamebreaking when matched against Rank 6 or less (especially CovOps / ECM, whose T3+ abilities are brutal to the point of overpowered for T2 pilots).
Rank 10 - Can hold their own against other T4, surprisingly, but are being matched against Rank 14 / 15 ships that will obliterate them without trying.
If the matchmaking was done properly, these issues would either not exist, or be significantly reduced.
And please, don’t use the tired “well I like a challenge!” excuse. If you want a challenge, then fixed tier matchmaking would allow it - put a single T5 ship in your roster and three T4 (or lower) ships, and you can have your ‘challenge’ of flying lower-tiered ships. You should not force people to fly against higher tiered ships who do not want to do so. That applies doubly for those who simply do not have the experience needed to compete against higher-tier opponents.