And they could have done that better as well. If Matalas was so gung-ho about making the next Enterprise a Constitution III class, he could have just had the ship be brand-new and left the Titan alone. Making the NCC-80102-A into the NCC-1701-G was just convoluted nonsense…just as convoluted as making the 80102-A a ‘refit’ of the 80102, but not really.
Another idea that would have worked better would have been for the Titan to have been named the Yorktown instead, have it be a later command of Riker’s, and then have the name be changed to the Enterprise-G, to echo the fan theory that the Enterprise-A was formerly the Yorktown.
Yes, about Yorktown! I've had the same thought. I was thinking more about Yorktown being the first ship name Roddenberry was going with before Enterprise, more than the fan theory though. Either way, it would've been a nice nod. My only quibble is that we wouldn't have gotten a replica of the Luna-class Titan onboard, but they could've just included Luna-class starships at Frontier Day or something to scratch that itch for me.