There is absolutely no reason to not have pilots for ships (unless it makes sense, where the ship is a droid).
Once you have maxed the ship to 7*, there is no longer any way to improve it. Abilities and level are pretty much automatically maxed because we have an excess of ship resources and not enough ships to build.
They say these new crew-less ships are calibrated to be comparable to maxed out pilots anyway, and that they would have to start out worse if they were piloted, as if that's a bad thing. The issue is not how I can have a better Y-wing - It's how can I have a better Y-wing than you. If you didn't invest in the pilot, and I did then mine will be better. That distinction is impossible if you never put pilots in ships again.
All of our ships will be the same the moment they hit 7*. If you are going to continue this just to placate those who hate ships and would prefer a game without them, then at least add something that makes it possible to make my ships better than theirs. Increase the level cap, mods for ships, or something. But I would honestly prefer the more thematically appropriate pilot, even if it's just a generic toon that is useless for anything else.