Didn't read the whole thread, but here're just few things that were mentioned over last years, again and again and again and again and... well,you got the idea.
For a capship to be made noticeably more efficient than other ship classes it should be given higher maintenance costs, not given to official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)
It'd also have a positive effect on server's economy.
(just in case anyone mentions - pursuing a fighter in a battleship is just as immersion killing, but hopefully not many caps do that after cruise drain nerf).
edit: i'm talking about several tens of millions here per respawn. Not even close to hundred+, it'd make them unplayable, but definitely not 10 and less, it'd be too insignificant. IMHO, around 25-50 for battleships, depending on their combat efficiency. (preliminary numbers, the actual ones would be found in the process of testing).
It'd require a new hook, ofc =\
Ofc, other ships would probably have to follow same doctrine (and this is what bomber/snub pilots were strictly against, if I remember correctly.)
If I'm not mistaken, originally this idea belonged to JinX.
Secondly, world of caps and world of snubs is absolutely different in gameplay - with the current game mechanics, skill has extreme importance in snubs.
No Turtle (rmbs) or Nephilim ever will kill 4-5 newbie LD's in a row, one by one, that only had a week in Conn, without resupplying.
I'm fairly sure that top tier PvP'er in some top-tier vhf will easily kill 4-5 newbies with a week in Conn in a row, one by one, without resupplying.
And it takes way more time for snub escorts to down enemy bomber swarm (and not to be downed by them, I remember a bunch of medium-skilled players being annihilated by a single bomber with a snac) before they novaspam capital ships to death and gtfo with a cloak. (no, cloak on a snub with 3 sec charging time is not op, it's quite ok.), skill difference being a huge force multiplier, much bigger than in caps.