What to make of Battle of Binaries losses? The eight thousand blamed on Burnham seemed to refer to that battle specifically (later on, around 10,000 are mentioned, apparently still referring only to Starfleet dead, and the war might never have touched the civilian population much, considering how smallish raids were considered significant in the briefing after the heroes' return from the MU still). A couple of dozen ships on each side were pitted against each other, and it was a decisive Starfleet defeat, but with known survivors and witnessed evacuations in escape pods. Would the 8,000 be divided between 10 or 20 ships, then? Many ships looked badly hurt, and some blew up in instant fireballs, with no chance of survivors. The quoted casualties would still suggest rather large crews if some ships escaped intact and others successfully launched pods.
People lost with the Gagarin of known size, the Hoover of assumed Hoover class size, and the Muroc of canonically unknown size in "Si vis Pacem" amounted to just 462, though, with little chance of survivors. These vessels would be crewed just as thinly as the Discovery, then.
Timo Saloniemi