Aye, Major..., sah. FFG seems to be pretty proud of their little Raider, as they should be. It fit well into the corvette category when they didn't really have anything of roughly the same size as the Reb's ships other than the CR-92 (which isn't that different from a CR90). So they made something that feels unmistakably Imperial to suite their needs; then to strengthen its position and show off their little beauty pageant princess, they put it in Armada as well. I think it was a good choice, it cemented the Raider's place effectively even if it had to superseded the role of the Lancer and its ilk. It had to in order to gain more widespread recognition as being legitimately tied to the Star Wars series rather than being seen as a fan-fic ship.
Yes, it's not going to be for everyone and it will have its detractors, but in the end it's still an impressive little ship that looks unmistakably Imperial.
As for the other thing, ahem, moar Russian ships! (I've always been a fan of their stuff 
)