Whats the polycount of mentioned TEC and SOSE ships? Beside the fact, we have many designers doing a great work, i'm in doubt these models could be imported the direct way, due to their polycount.
the polycount is not the problem with these ships - they have a rather low polycount. - but what you might forget is that the ONLY reason they look so fabulous is due to shader effects. - bumb mapping, normal mapping, real reflections, material settings, RT shadows and not to mention voluminous lights, blur and blending effects.
if those ships were flying with the old freelancer engine - they d look rather boring. - their design is nice.. but not as original as the freelancer ships. - on the other hand, if freelancer had access to the dx10 effects, it would look fabulous, too. - just imagine bump and normal mapping on shiphulls - dynamic damage textures, real time reflections on the round glass canopy of a cavalier, field of depth effec on battleships etc.
hard to compare those games - as so much has improved in the years between both.