but that in turn means memorizing the hull types, which doesn't seem remotely intuitive.
I think you'll find them a lot more intuitive as you get used to them. Most of them are pretty much what you'd expect. A few, like vampires for instance, are something unusual because it fits more with their nature. The polycrystal group is just tanks and bombers, which I needed to split out because of the way that fortresses, etc, need to have a penalty against them. You picked a few of the more unusual examples in your rant, sure, but there is a method to the madness and most are pretty straightforward. You're always memorizing something, right, whether it's ammo types or what a ship name means, etc.
I see the arguments for the new method- it lets players see the raw numbers and make their own calculations of efficiency, and it is common to most the mainstream rts like warcraft- but I preferred the existing system both because it was a groundbreaking step forward and because it effectively meant there was no NEED to look at stats or armour types. anyway, conservative rant over 
Well, I hear you, I really do. But -- and here's the thing -- often a really good ship for the job would be overlooked in the older system. AND, when you were attacking bigger structures, starships, etc, the older system was absolutely and completely useless. It only ever worked for groups of fleet ships versus groups of other fleet ships.
Realistically, when it comes to fleet ships, you only ever have 4-9 options at your disposal, and that's by the end of a game. And you're facing off against only maybe 6-12 types on average, too, and that's also by the end of a 10+ hour game. So the amount of memorization is pretty low, I think. And the main thing is, when it comes time to attack something that isn't a fleet ship -- which is ever so much more common now -- you'll actually have a means to make decisions on that. Guard posts, starships, golems, guardians, etc... none of those work properly with the strong/weak data, because it takes too many ships to take them down, and thus they wind up showing as strong against everything, which isn't that useful.
Now we have a unified system that is pretty simple all around, especially against the big stuff. The more I think about this, the less I think I'd even add strong/weak back as an option, because it would only be for fleet ships, it's a management hassle for me (I have to export that thing all the time, which takes forever), and it's subtly misleading all over the place.
THAT said, having a "likely counters" or something might be all right. Okay, so I have a neutron hull. What is good against neutron hulls? Etc.
also:
melee ships don't seem to attack properly atm, and radar jammers dont seem to work
To my knowledge radar jammers should be fine, but if you have a save it would be appreciated. We have another report about the melee stuff, I'll check that out.
