[Q]

White Hojo indeed in my experience the resupply minister works for all the other ships.
Baron Munchhausen you are right, but the problem if you use some solar panel or supply storage components in the early game you will have a quite low speed of the ship if you reduce the number of engines in order to get the necessary space. The other option to omit the cargo component is also not to good in my opinion.
And I really to think the quantom reactor is worth-while the research, because for attact ships it is a huge advantage if they can continue their offensive without resupply problems.