Odd technerf is odd.

[Strichev]

The point of a freighter is that it can get to safety of a base while under fire, and still carry a bit of cargo. Since it lacks the armour or agility it needs to reduce the time the enemy ship has to fire at it. To do so, one needs to keep the enemy vessel under constant pressure. In other words I need to keep shooting those fancy green plasma balls at the enemy so that he has to spend at least one bit dodging.

As for the corporation only use, introduce house specific civilian IDs and give them minimal nerf for said guns.