Well cards on the table is fine, and as long as people aren't trying to upset eachother, direct and frank discussion should be quite acceptable. So, from that point, would you consider views from a layman that has no idea of coding, and can abrely install a game, doesn't want excessively complicated and completely pointless functions, and perhaps, from their user only perspective, may see things a little differntly?
As far as launches go, having the Vipers rattle down the tubes would be a wonderful way to start the missions, really helping with the tension and feel of the show. Arriving in theatre already well away from the launch platform was terrible in the Star Wars games, and recovering to within 1km, rather than landing, left each mission with a sense of incompleteness.
However, having the Viper "playable" in the tubes serves no purpose - what exactly are people proposing to do in there? An animation would be perfectly adequate, and would solve all the collision problems that seem (from my limited understanding) to be the main sticking point.
Launching Raptors from the landing decks and recovering all spacecraft would be "fully playable". The gear gould perhaps be automatic, once within a short distance from the pods, so you don't need to add landing gear key strokes to the engine, and perhaps setting up the deck with localised "gravity" would help, if that's possible. Damaging collisions with the pod walls would be enabled, just like the rest of the game, but not with the landing deck, if it's feasible to make them distinct in the engine.
I'm sure it's not something you haven't considered already, but as I understand it, a lot of effort seems to be being expended on making the vipers flyable in the launch tubes, which is not how it would work in the show - they'd either have a physical inhibit for the thrusters or would have proceedures to ensure the pilots didn't use the controls until clear, and a luanch animation would cover that perfectly well.