I didn't even notice that they existed. >..>
I noticed they were starship-grade electric shuttles in their description and forgot they were there >.>
During the beta, I played two games with them. That's exactly what they are - tougher, larger, Electric Shuttles. They fall right in line with other starships damage wise (More HP, less DPS than the fleetship equivalents), and I ended up with the same feeling using them as using Electric Shuttles.
They aren't BAD, per-se, but it is really hard to quantify their usefulness. The only time they were racking up kills for me was when they were fighting off hordes of Mime drones. Unfortunately, I think that because it is the awkwardness rather than the damage, raising their DPS probably won't help much in getting the Lightning Starship to be popular.
Maybe if the shiptype stats could be upgraded to record damage as well as kills, it'd be easier to understand?