What are the star levels opponents' ships around you? There isn't a huge difference in 1-4*, but once you get to 5-6* the multiplier goes up more (.1 instead of .05). So a lot of people who aren't noticing a stat difference now are going to feel the struggle when enemies are 5-6-7* and they're only 3-4-5*.
You should gear Boba anyway - if you're going to be running Slave I, he needs to be geared to have good stats (around 1/3rd of his crew rating comes from gear, same as every other crew member). However, I don't think you should this via fleet shipments. People do seem "distracted" by characters, gear, and zetas, allowing you to stay top 50ish. But what happens when they start caring more about ships because their rank slips a little (as new people start popping into the top 50-100)? Personally, I'd want to be on the leading edge of that transition than trying to play catch up. Getting the zeta helped your arena rank, which is great, but now I think you should switch over to ships to be prepared for where your shard goes. And, if they don't match your ship growth, you'll increase your ranking. It isn't much of an increase in ship credits and fleet tokens, but it does add up if you could move into top 20 or even catch a top 10 at payout some of the time.
I will admit, I'm surprised you stayed top 50ish. I figured people would have actually cared about ships and invested in them. In my shard, if I hadn't been investing in ships the entire time I would have dropped from top 10 (at payout) to top 50, maybe even top 100; bit more competitive shard over here, so the decision to go one way or another is pretty situational. Had your shard been more competitive the 100-200 would have been the most accurate estimate, I think, and if you only hit top 50 on a 5/5 day I suspect you could slowly wind up there if you don't start doing much with your ships.
No, I don't have a bunch of math to back this up (partly because I'm sick with the flu and don't feel like doing anything but passing out haha), but I personally think it makes sense on a conceptual level. You've essentially had a grace period in fleet arena, but no one knows how long that will continue to last. Especially since you can start working toward getting zetas from challenges, speeding up the process for your next one when you finally find one you want to chase, I recommend investing your fleet tokens in ship blueprints (with the odd gear here and there if it's toward the end of a piece and you want the bump for arena or raid).
