Yes. As a FTP the arenas should be priority as the crystal income fuels development for toons in all other areas of the game.
Fleet arena is difficult because there is a relatively small selection of ships and no way to mod stats. This leads to there being 1 or 2 "best teams" and it is difficult to get creative and find unique ways to beat them.
That said, Fleet arena is generally less active than squad arena. So if you can invest the gear into 4-5 ships plus a capital ship, it is not too difficult to maintain top 20/10 payouts daily (if you have HMF). The ship meta also hasn't shifted nearly as often as the squad meta, so you usually get more return on your investment.