Are ships worth it?

Although Fleet Arena is nowhere near as fun, I realized early if I continue to invest everything into ship arena, ship arena payout fuels everything else. It becomes a very symbiotic relationship.
It’s not unlike owning rental properties. If you make wise decisions and put in the time and effort (including many other factors that are outside of your control), the rental properties end up paying for themselves AND your home mortgage . ?
Keep in mind it’s a long term investment. I did not truly realize how further ahead I am than others until GA matchups started.

It worth noting that the easier your shard the less you need to invest and the more fleet is worth it.

I started 13 months ago. I managed to skate through with tl fleet until hmf. Geos and hounds tooth were very beatable and I didn't see anyone with the mace timeout fleet.

Fleet arena is a million times easier than squad arena, for the sole reason that ships don't have mods. In squad you're always going to be overshadowed by that one lucky dingdong who somehow ended up with a set of 30 perfect mods that make his squad just utterly untouchable.

In fleet the playing field is pretty much level - you improve your ships by improving the pilots, but once they're fully G12'd and 6e modded, that's it, they don't get any better. So you don't have that one guy that just completely dominates despite running the same team as you.

Also, most people seem to really, really hate ships for some reason (I don't get it, I love them) so the competition tends to not be as fierce for top spots.

Ships in my shard are much more gentlemanly, way less active that squad arena, easier to hit #1, and say what you want about HMF it's a whole lot more fun playing those matches that wading through the seas of Revan. It does seem to me like ships is a bit more about strategy, and arena is more about whether or not you have a couple hours of free time to paddle up to the top after falling 100+ ranks overnight...

My 2500+ Crystals a week says yes

yes

Thanks for the help everyone !