With WoD I think you can never really tell when it's making an allusion or taking an idea and running with it.
Makes me wonder. Ancient, super-powerful fighter? Not exactly a new idea, and 'serious professional military personnel wanting to fly realistic normal military vehicles in space' types probably don't like the association with arcade shooters and super-robot anime. But was the Frame fun to fly? And did Spoon implement it successfully? Did it provide something other campaigns don't? Did it have awesome fighter beams? I think yes, and Spoon has succeeded here.
Another example of WoD's subtle charm are the Cordi fighters. Again, mini-fighters aren't anything new in Sci-Fi, but the Cordi fighters were awesome. They're bite-sized, they skid around, changing direction just when you've got your gun tracing right, and generally behave differently from FS2 swarming fighters.