I'm for making official factions somewhat more shiny with such toys. As for non-combat ones, their special perk ships could be bigger transports or mining ships with much greater drop ratio (as there would be only 1 ship for a faction).
Although, I don't like the money-for-death penalty. In my opinion it would be much more efficient and activity-generating if factions had to run some minirepair event and bring certain commodities to their home shipyard or somewhere.