I'm glad to see MoW is back. Not because of anything specific but for general reasons.
However - my note is not about that. It's about 'canon' or 'not canon'.
In a nutshell - who gives a s--t!?
SE IV is not ST, nor Bab5 nor Galactica nor yet MOO. It's - du'oh - Space Empires.
An arguement about canon say referring to Soviet vs US aircraft design would be just as pointless - since they ripped off most of our designs anyway.
So let it be with ships in SE IV. Your race - the other guys race -- they all have their own ideas about what constitutes a good design and how it looks, etc.
Even if you're playing an ST mod within SE - it's not possible to mod the exact ST universe anyway.
I don't understand why anyone would froth at the mouth because one ship has a red stripe and the 'real' ship had a blue one.
'We're terribly sorry Mr Lindberg. But your airplane should have been green for your flight to count'.