I will agree, something is glitchy with the hero ships in SA. I've had matches where I have enough for a hero ship, die, get dropped into the select screen, shows max # in play for hero ships, I pick fighter/interceptor/bomber, get dumped in to the waiting to spawn screen and a 1/2 sec later someone drops into the spawn screen with a hero ship. Like, it wasn't there a second ago! I know it's possible the timing could have been just right for a hero to die right after I selected and the person right behind me having the option to select a hero ship but for all that to go down in a second or less is weird.
What really needs to happen is the dark side hero ships need to be evened out with the light side so it's possible to have 3/3 in each round at once. I believe dark side hero ships are limited to two at the moment? I know light side hero ships are far more prevalent for me to be able to use than dark side.