Not only do you need them for events but you will find that since nobody really cares about ships you have a good chance to climb high in the arena and get higher currency and crystal pay out. The more ship currency you obtain the faster you get zetas and zetas are probably the most important piece of the game. Before I joined a more powerful guild I didn’t give a care about ships at all and being behind in ships meta crippled my TB and GAC performance. I know it’s boring and such a garbage part of the game but if you don’t have a semi decent fleet you will regret it. Trust me.