Ninja'd by Lancake.
I think you should let us inherit power from docked ships and turrets. Because you have effecitvly killed multi part "component" ships.
Yes, they did that deliberately. Using docked power systems, and understanding their complexities well enough to actually build using them, was a complicated thing that most beginning players could not fathom, and many non-beginning players did not want to have to fathom. Schine has made the decision to MASSIVELY dumb down the game so that it is now balanced for RP players. Inherited power has been killed deliberately.
The amount of power a ship has is a direct relationship to the size of the ship. This can be exceeded only to a relatively small degree by accepting a lower stabilizer efficiency and deciding to accept the mass penalty so as to squeeze in more power. The only real decisions now are; what size ship is optimum for it's role, whether or not to have a slightly slower ship with weapons for each range category (slower due to the extra mass of the weapons), and what your mass ratios will be between maneuverability and defense. That and how you used your chamber points of course. That's it. Other than that it is differences in pretty.
There may be some actual game left in the game with strategic decisions, but there is little game left in building decisions. Starmade ship building now has little more 'game' depth any more than do games that just have you add a selection of pre-built modules to a selection of hull stats. The decision has been made. Like it or leave it. It's done.
I do not see whats stopping people from making stick like ships of reactors and stabilizers in max box dimension for optimal distance.
We may well see ships with distant tails. Ships that have all their build blocks, the ship proper with weapons, et. al., in one section, and then a tail trailing two kilometers behind of just stabilizers. It will likely suck at turning, but have lots of power. Consider that the new doom cube. It will probably wreak havoc on servers when one part of the ship is in a fight taking damage while the other part is in another sector.
I might be misunderstanding the question, but aren't shields and thrusters somewhat filler blocks right now? Currently, I don't see why a player would choose (for the most part) decorative blocks or air over shields or thrust.
Shields and thrusters use up precious power. There is no way currently to exceed the fixed power relationship of power and ship size, so you cannot indiscriminately use power. Moreover, shields and thrusters have a LOT more mass than do decorative blocks. If you want to make pretty, decorative blocks are the way to go.