What do you do..?

Will you go for a build with one extra ship or do use those points for upgrading?

Most lists that I build will be based around a trick or combo. So I start by taking the bare bones required for that combo to work. Then I will look for upgrades that would synergize with that combo and see what I can come up with. Then I will look at what ships I could get instead of taking those upgrades and weigh up whether the extra ship/s will give me a stronger force than what the upgrades are offering. Generally speaking an extra ship is a better investment than a ships worth of upgrades though.

I always try for more ships than upgrades, if I can, but sometimes certain ships sort of come with upgrades in my head. The easiest example would be a HWK with some sort of turret. I also usually give my TIE bombers some missiles/torps.

Generally speaking another ship is usually better than upgrades.

If I'm optimizing my squad for the standard 100pt dogfight with asteroids, I tend to go for the extra ship if there's room for it. But I hardly ever play that way, and in casual games I tend to use upgrades a lot more for the interesting options.

4 ships plus limited upgrades seems to be the sweet spot.