I actually suggested part of this a couple years back, here, after playing a bit of Star Trek Armada 2. And I definitely a agree, would love to see more options for customizing things like damage rates, shield strengths, and whatever else. 

I experimented with this a little bit in a death match minimod I made. Increased all weapons damage by 50%, and it certainly did a lot to make Sins feel more like other RTSs where units die fairly easily. However, it made capital ships a lot less important and increased the range advantage of the carrier caps, so I think it will only amplify the game imbalances.

I kind of like the idea of changing the game pace, but I really fear that this would horribly unbalance the game.  Like previously stated, to many ships would become obsolete.  The game currently has enough balance issues, this could just make things worse.