I'm always listening.
The idea is to keep the combat screen free of clutter and anything that might break you out of the experience. I think it's kind of an extreme reaction to games that just display too much, too many little menus and bars and so forth. Dunno about you guys, but I want to see the ships.
So, those are some of the reasons we implemented it the way we did, with a mouseover for reviewing each ship's status.
Still, as I said at the top, I'm always listening.