From the evidence here (and I don't know what other evidence may show) but it seems that it's only good at taking ships in THEIR gravity wells. That seems like a bug, because it makes absolutely no in-game sense. I could see an argument for only being able to capture ships in your own gravity wells (You see, in friendly space the Seabees are able to come and patch up the ship, and if you're away from friendly space there's just no option but to scuttle it.) However, the way it stands it makes no sense, either by in-game logic such as the above or meta-game logic of balance, as you point out. A compromise might be that if you capture a ship in enemy/neutral territory, it is automatically scuttled for damage at whatever skill that ship has it at. Or alternately it's instantly scuttled for supplies: The marines go in, grab the good stuff, the expensive and rare ship parts, and blow it to kingdom come as they head out the airlock. There would also be an argument there for stealing technology, if the marines make out with a next-gen shield projector, for example.
