Hey there @Edairman198526 Thank you for providing great feedback, I'll pass this on to the team🦾
Shields don't protect you from collision damage in Squadrons. Thus ships with more hull are at an advantage when ramming, which makes sense. Since shield-less Imperial ships have larger hulls/health, they can withstand more collision damage. So no, New Republic ships don't really have an advantage when it comes to that, if anything, they may have a disadvantage against Imperial ships of the same class when it comes to ramming.
I don't think your suggestion of counting who dealt more damage before is the best, since some ships can deal more damage and others can soak more instead - thus ships that can dish out more damage quickly would be at an advantage.
What you can do to survive collisions better is bolster your hull with components that increase your hull health. Another thing you could do is equipping an unstable engine if your fighter has one which will cause an explosion and take the rammer with you if he survives the initial collision and you don't. Try to avoid going head-to-head, or just evade them, perhaps with a quick boost past them when someone goes for ramming speed, drift/turn and vape them quickly from behind, like you would in a dogfight.
