I think there needs to be a big disconnect in the belief that mech and heavy mechs are better simply because they cost more and take longer to train.

As said multiple times the different classes of bots are intended for different purposes.  I honestly believe a solo heavy mech should get eaten alive by light bots.

Probably the only way this issue could have been prevented is if the light bots and mech bots were two seperate paths in the skill trees.  But the devs didn't go that way so we have what we have.

More importantly the real issue, lack of incentives to play for all play styles, is true. We are in a game that let's be honest is very early in its development cycle and very limited in its current scope.  Hopefully, we can get the developers to present their long term programming goals for the game.  Seriously we *** and complain and we have no idea what the ultimate goals are.  I remember the beginning of stEVE damn the hybrid ammo all had the same effective range so you'd only ever use anti-matter ammo, but we knew what was coming down the pipe so kept playing even with those glaring bugs. Let's push for a DEV update on their overall vision for the game.  It may take a year or two but from what I've seen so far it has great promise.

Until then give us more land mass to fight over, make it a true investment in time and material to hold territory, give small corps incentive and chances to hold their piece of the pie, and make PVE fun and challenging not another "gathering" profession.  You fix these and you are well on your way to making an award winning game.