I have doubts about the benefit of 3v3. IMO the number of ships isn't the problem but rather the lack of meta diversity. As others said I don't think it will take long for people to figure out the optimal 3 ships. I also don't like that it will basically predetermined everyone's first cap ship move (reinforce ), it also leaves too much room for the AI to Bork things up on defense through either not reinforcing or sending in the wrong ship. With 5v5 you can at least mitigate some of the AI.
I suspect that the Reaper will become even more import with a burst damage opening 3 focus. I wouldn't be surprised for the new meta to be reaper, ITF, FOTF/Poe. Two fast moving attackers, Reaper for tmr, first to burn down a ship wins by getting their reinforce first. From there either another current meta attacker to burn down the next ship or maul to put counter attack on ITF.
I do like what they're doing with hardware. I was worried they'd just add another speed mod meta where the person with the most rng speed secondary luck wins.
I think they'd be better served seeing how the rework + hardware goes before changing starting ship numbers. As others said they've basically gotten 100% of the community to hate on them with every update since the sith raid was released, they don't really have any goodwill to tap if they mess up fleet arena.
