Well, I've experimented that too ( I did my homework ^^ ), the problem is, with the kind of map like the one you have ( "render texture" with shadows on ), if you want to tile it, it's not that difficult, some touching up in photoshop and you're set, the problem is, you have to have the map fit with the mesh, which means you have to have a... how to call that? Let's say a tiled geometry, and that is nowhere as easy to achieve - unless planar landscape.
Besides, it won't work on a "spherical" object, it'd look like you have some natural anomaly, a spiral light ( that's an interesting concept, in fact, but heh
).
So I believe this can work either as one UV mapped texture on a relatively small object ( with your resolution, something around the size of a destroyer max, from my tests - I use the same resolution as you, at that size - I'm talking all around mapping, not planar - , it's a bit blury, but nothing awful, and the improvement over old ways is quite obvious ), or either on a plane, some landscape that you can't go around, just fly over, like a planet or huge asteroid surface, like in your shots.
