Yes, it can be used as PBW without AI. Such a game would give useful feedback.
You won't have much in the way of modded weapons yet though, as I haven't done much with weapons.
I had a thought:
What if I did this: make engines 5 kT, and remove their supply capacity. Replace Supply Bays with various types of "reactors" that store the supplies the engines used to store (also 5 kT components). Then, you have a choice between faster ships, and longer ranged ships (much more so than in the current system).