It's one of those ships, like the Octurion, that looks very different depending on whether it's yours or not.
Deploying it, I've never felt it was worth it. It can't maneuver, acts like a ball and chain on the rest of your fleet, doing more damage to your own strategy than it's likely to to the enemy. I can see why there's a case to be made to reduce it.
From the enemy's point of view, it's a cast- iron b*tch to take down. It is just far too tough, and has too much damage potential with that double forward boresight.
By the time of the SFoS version, it has largely been superseded, though. The real use and value for it would be in it's earlier incarnations, fromthe turn of the century say, where it is effectively the largest EA warship of it's day. I'd love to see the 2130 and 2200 versions of it.