This is much too complicated. Plus, Igiss wants to make a mod that's logical for other servers to be able to use, so adding in stations, planets, etc. isn't something others are looking for.
We need to keep this AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE. I know if I owned a faction, I wouldn't bother building these stations you're talking about. I mean, you can have the same number of people with one station as you can with 10 stations, 2 shipyards, and a planet. Who, other than you, Dab, is going to bother?
We need to be able to conquer systems that is acceptable to everyone. I think just being able to conquer a system you need to have a faction in the system you want to conquer. And they need to be connected.
The battles would simply be a 3-death rule fight. You may use whatever ship you want for the lives, but battleships must be used for your first life, and must only be used ONCE.
Of course, there is always the option of having there be an admin "reset" button. Meaning you, the admins, can decide that a faction is conquering too many systems. That basically is a "economic-meltdown" button. They can no longer support their extra systems and are once again limited to their home system.
OR
You can set a system-limit.
EDIT:
Before I forget, there may need to be a way to make yourself able to sort of keep people out of your systems. A sort of 3-death rule where if you are killed in an enemy faction's system by that faction three times, you are kicked out. Of course, the defender would be able to three-death everyone else, as well.