an Aten because something like that isn't very useful as a prop because weapons are the primary way that a capship interacts with the mission.
The Aten is a good a example for what my point of dissent is: As a ship with less weapons to make it a piece of scenery you have to stay away from (a fact combounded with weapons designed to more a ship more like scenery e.g. massed Flak), and makes it more a prop. Additionally, it provides you with much more of an incentive to actually work out it role as a prop - to find a role for ship to be there other than to shoot its guns.
I am not saying there are no other ways to go about it - Solaris made it work perfectly well by utilization of ship-to-ship missiles: while the ships themselves on continuum from prop to scenery were much more scenery, the missile combat allowed for a point of interaction. (so does the use of ship-to-ship torpedoes in BP, as seen in AoA's
Forced Entry)
Likewise, if another factor is involved, let's say a thematic throughline about the technology not being able to make up for poor decision making, you can also make ships armed to the brim work (which is how FS2 works that angle IMO)
Say what you will about the Sathanas being the "this is where the mission ends and the cutscene begins"-presence it still remains - for the lack of a better word - playable; something that cannot be said about BPs overgunned with specialized guns capital ships.
Just to be sure, you're saying BPs capitals are unplayable? That's a bit of a strange statement if that's what you really mean given how much of a significant centerpiece they are in a large and highly successful mod! You might disagree with their design methodology, but to claim they're unplayable is patently and obviously false.
What I mean with saying the Sathanas is playable is that besides its role as "steamroller", as it has in
Bearbaiting and
Straight, No Chaser, you can technically move action around at any distance and have the model at least give you the option to provide an managable impact - something I don't see working quite as well with the BP capitals ships, due to the abundance of overlapping fields of fire.
Now, I am currently mostly occupied with rehashing old stuff (the
Rain on Ribos IV and
Drums of War re-releases are around the corner basically), but I will put up in support of what I am saying in due time. I think once I get the whole sorry affair out as something playable, it will probaly be easier to understand what I am trying to get at.