[Captain Kwok]

You are under a mistaken impression that every ship requires/uses a captain...they do not. Ships without them can be assumed to have the average 'captain'. They are just components with different abilities that you can use if you want.

The idea behind a freighter captain is to reduce maintenance for non-combat ships since you're not really using them for combat. The combat penalty is to ensure players don't use these components on warships where they don't belong.

The Ferengi are not designed to be war mongers. They require a different strategy and their bonuses will reflect that.