The Sabre-like ships were a product of Alvin Katz wanting to depart from the Xing-line, while they were decent ships they were frankly Dagger clones. There's nothing wrong with vertical ships, they just have to meet the standards set forth by the Development community in terms of quality and not be a direct import from a non-Freelancer/Starlancer series. (Which is why the mod got rid of alot of the imports pre .85/86).