he might have referred to the rather crappy look of the reactors ( or if you like a nicer description, the much jules verne look of them ) - with the pipes and the size they simply do look like a 1930s ford compared to a 21th century car ( hessian ships vs. BW ships )
bw ships have no visible reactor - which also means that the reactor is smaller in most cases. there are no pipes and cables on their outside - and their cold blueish steel colour can be associated with a higher level of technology - compared to the rusty bordeaux / greenish look of the hessian ships.
stats only say so much about a ships technology. - after all, even vanilla lore suggests that corsair ships are 20% faster than others... yet the stats don t reflect that, - but that doesn t mean it may not be RPed as such.
edit: and you lost your bet, the response was an attempt to explain why hessian ships may look "crappier" than BW ships - and that ships derived from hessian ships may not look "top of the line", too. ( and no, no one ever said they ought to look like that )