Yeah, my understanding is they have the license but haven't yet done anything with it, which suggests it's in a weird sort of limbo right now. I think you and I have a similar interpretation, but I admit I still feel like it's missing important information (YMMV, of course
). I might take a look at the forums, but I'm not sure why this statistic wouldn't be included in the core rulebook. I seem to recall noting similar omissions when looking at some of their related properties like Dystopian Wars (although I'd need to look closer at that one also).
I've been looking into Paizo's
Starfinder recently and while I like aspects of it, some of the rules regarding ship construction and other aspects are a little wonky this way. They don't always clarify how a weapon or system is supposed to work or what distinguishes two similarly named weapons aside from basic statistics (a persistent particle beam is a separate weapon from a standard particle beam, but there is no explanation on how the "persistent" qualifier works). Even if the explanation is short and simply fluff, it can be a useful detail.
To give an example of an alternative, the various books for
Battletech always give full statistics for units regardless of whether players specifically use miniatures or not. All the tech books and some sourcebooks cover specific unit statistics, while the core books have information on how the weapons and other systems themselves work.
