I'm not sure how "simplifying" the stats further would help anything. The only way I can see that "working" is to hide certain parts of the stats set so as not to confuse people unless they go looking for the full version.
IE, bring back guns for all ships, agility, weapon speed, etc. Simple version would show you initiative, damage, and the cost of the ship.
Advanced version would show you all the stuff we cut out so many rounds ago, where all ships (or most) had more than one gun, plus all of the above-mentioned stats you could spend hours thinking about if you wanted to. A/C, D/C.
EMP resistance would have to fall somewhere in between.
(Probably bad examples):
The Torpedo should have been "good" in r3, but the agility and weapon speed meant it's damage was basically irrelevant. Had a good "threadnaught" on the Tactics page about it that cut my chops (and I'm sure some others) on PA stats "design" pros/cons.
r4 we had a Terran (or 'War') CO (Phoenix I think) with pods, and that was it.
The Sentinel in round 5/6/8 whatever with it's t3=ALL meant you only needed to build that, plus pods, and win. Twatting down BS with mass, cheap, kill-anything FI.
Space-brick Frigate forts have made a few appearances. Or DE forts.
I can see both sides of it as my rambling here shows. I just can't see how one, or the other, does anything to "fix" a seemingly broken--and fundamental--aspect of the game.
War or Science, anyone?
Passing the ball to mz on this one.