According to statistics from jsut about the moment the nice statistics were killed off the Eagle and the Sabre were by far far far the most common snubs and i would put that into the "swarm intelligence" folder, there is a good reason everyone uses them ( ok, availability is one of them, too)- they are simply good ships.
For a generalization: the faster the ship, the easier it is to pull off things that would require more skill with a slower ship, thus gives you a slight boost ahead if you are a beginner facing of more experienced players in slower or more specialized craft.