Hi Throwdini (News Radio
was a great show, wasn't it?
),
In Starfire (the boardgame "inspiration" for SE4), component order matters since hits are generally from left to right. Shields have to be placed leftmost; armor immediately follows; then come the other systems. Some weapons skip certain component types, while others roll a die to determine which one of the next few components is hit, and some component types have to be placed in contiguous blocks (possibly broken up by bulkheads) with a random number of losses per weapon hit. This is an "outer hull" to "inner core" progression rather than a fore/starboard/dorsal affair.
All of this allows the ship's designer to roughly anticipate how his ship will be shot up. For example, lose engines first, but keep the best weapons, or lose weapons but be able to run away by preserving engines. Or a mix. Or, let the crew quarters & life support holds take hits to preserve engines and weapons during the battle, but at a cost afterward in loss of efficiency/lives. Spend space and money for internal bulkheads (for carriers and freighters), or use it for outer defenses, or use it for more fighters/cargo and trust in your escorts. Starfire is pretty sophisticated in these matters.
SE4 has some of this with its "Shield then Armor then everything else" hit order, and it sort of makes sense that after Shields and Armor you can't expect to design what will be hit next. Plus, there's the issue that you mentioned of the AI trying to match players' sophisticated designs if hit order mattered. But, some folks seem to miss the detail that Starfire offers.