I agree with the OP, Zoner caps should be limited in a way, but I would extend it to every faction as well.
My personal view is that in a Discovery Utopia, every single capital ship above from gunboat would be restricted to a "relaxed" SRP at least and that request would be decided by admins or official factions, preferably the former to avoid the elitism or the skype-buddy net™. With this method, new players wouldn't get their big toys so easily, they need to learn the faction's lore, RP basics, etc. For me there is no more disappointing element in this game when a battleship fly by and greets with a "Hello =)".