I’m not sure what you meant by never seen a ship drain a bases supplies when it’s built. I said that a ship will need supplies when it’s built or suffer the regular penalties for being out of supply. Could you elaborate more on what you are trying to say and how it correlates to what I said?
Here are a few reasons why I feel repair ships are better to build than repair bases: 1) Bases can’t move ships can. 2) If I am doing a massive fleet overhaul I can summon as many repair ships to that location as I want. Otherwise I would have to build repair bases then mothball or scrap them later. That would be a waste of time and resources. 3) My borders are always changing and my fronts are always shifting from war to war. If I built bases they would be left behind in what will eventually become my core systems. Then they will be useless unless I want to summon my fleets all the way back. With repair ships I can move to the fleets and repair them on location. 4) You are going to pay maintenance either way you go. I would prefer to pay more and get full mobility. 5) In every mod I can recall the repair bay is always smaller than the ship yard. That is specifically so that they can be mounted in a ship and moved. Do you see the mobility them here? Mobility is key to waging a successful war. And as I told StarJack, I need plenty of slaves to clean dem’ crappers!
No matter which philosophy you choose as long as you are having fun that is all that matters.