Best Fleet

What makes Hyena such a great tank is the insane level of defense on that ship.

Since you hardly ever get all your reinforcements out anyway, most 7th ships will do nothing for your squad, but Geo Soldier gives Hyena that extra boost. He gives great help to one of your most important ships without even entering the battle.

You don't have to upgrade Soldier or the ship if you don't want to, but having the last ship in your reinforcement chain give you crucial bonuses even when it never has a chance to make it onto the battlefield? That's better than putting the Falcon in that slot.

Therefore I respectfully disagree with your assessment.