In RP, shields are needed for various reasons. Smugglers need it. You cannot expose your hull to the numerous dust particles in space. Of course the ship shakes a lot and would be difficult to concentrate. To make the game more interesting, ships with higher armor have to be made, like present fighters will have to have the armor of that of a gunboat, and hull of cap ships should be tripled. Of course, NPC capships and transports do not have shields, that is another problem!
And, we don't have the Freelancer source code yet, to modify the game that much, so we will have to wait and see if it is possible.