I think you're right here.
If you want concepts for the Enterprise, of which the Daedalus was one, I'd recommend checking out The Making of Star Trek and some other books.
As a huge TOS fan (it's still my favorite show of all time although TNG and DS9 are right up there with TOS, they're all just classic), it was kind of frustrating that, for so long, there weren't that many other ships shown. The reason why was obvious. It was all due to money. I read in an interview or a book that, adjusting for inflation, TOS spent as much on their effects as TNG. The problem was, it was a lot harder to do those effects I guess and more costly. You didn't get nearly as much bang for your buck. So we had these ships, like the Gorn ship, or the Orion ship and the like, that weren't even show or just a flickering light effect. The Antares was the Botany Bay model, and the Way to Eden ship was the Tholian Ship with some nacelles added on. Mudd's ship was a big white dot.
I know there are purists who didn't like the remastered sfx for TOS, but, speaking for myself, I loved them. The Enterprise just looked amazing and the HD effects were so clear. Also, finally, we had ship designs for all those ships, the Gorn ship, Mudd's ship, the Antares, etc, that never ever had one.
All that said, that original Enterprise design is still just so dang great. They've tweaked and stretched that initial Jeffries concept so much over time, from Probert's radical Ent-D, to the George's Excelsior, Eaves Ent-D, Sternbach's Voyager, the Discovery (Mark Worthington was the production designer), and Ryan Church's ST 2009 Enterprise. The only design, that I think still has those perfect proportions of the original ship is Probert and Taylor's TMP Enterprise. Those ships just look great from every angle. Now, I love how radical a departure Probert's Ent-D was, and George and Eaves' sleek Excelsior and Ent-E designs, and yeah, Worthington's Discovery is interesting too, and I really like Church's hotrod Enterprise, but the Jeffries original and Probert and Taylor TMP ships, to me, are still the best imo.
