a skilled light battleship can kill a heavy battleship so don't make them look weak because its not all about armor hitpoints and power core,etc...
while they don't perform well enough in close range...they shouldn't do,so...keep it as it is
as for repair turrets...that could be quite interesting ,if you do so give them the ability to hold more shield/hull batteries(we could use a ship that could supply a pob with them properly)effectively increasing their survivability while having no offensive capabilities in return
People want to believe that God has a plan for them.
They don't wanna believe that anyone else does..