This one is probably going to be very iffy so out there for discussion it goes.
I'm starting to think that maybe a controllable fleet ships could be brought back somewhat, though in more limited form and in a way that doesn't clash too much with the new combat.
Perhaps portion of the the player ship's firepower and shielding coming in the form of a regenerating "drone swarm" that only takes keybind orders like "escort", "attack target", "dock/deploy", and maybe even a "focus" (like a weaker/cheaper Operation Raptor) and a "shield" (stay between me and the target). Maybe they'd only attack targets within a certain range and would generally act an extension ship instead of separate units that maneuver independently.
It doesn't have to be like that of course, but there are probably some ways you could potentially salvage some elements from the previous combat to give the new combat little bit more depth and to differentiate it a bit more from a straight top down shooter.
