I am loving the 2.0 articles; very excited!
It always bothered me that FFG marketed cool new pilots and upgrades that were ONLY included in epic ships. I hope that is a thing of the past.
2.0 and Epic Scale Ships (marketing)
Probably not, although they have said they won't package things you need in other faction's ships. No more Autothrusters Expansion Pack.
That's probably why the blisters have gone up in price. In addition to putting more named pilots in (you now get four instead of two) they'll probably repeat any of the wave's cross-faction upgrades.