I guess one convenient metric would be "a tad smaller and thus presumably more affordable than the top-line design of a given design generation". And starships from the Plastic Age definitely come in such generations, even if CGI has resulted in greater variation and perhaps a bit less kitbashing.
For the Galaxy, there are a couple of generation siblings we might consider. The Nebula is big, though, and doesn't meet the above criterion, even if she appears in quite some numbers in TNG, DS9 and VOY. And the kitbashes from "Best of Both Worlds" are really obscure. But there's one family member that's just perfect - the Akira shares the saucer contours and the like, and is both smaller and (thanks to CGI) quite numerous. All-purpose? Dunno about that. But she's everywhere, and might just as well do everything.
The presumed next generation, with the lengthwise stretched primary hulls, terracing, triangulish-cross-section nacelles and all, has the Sovereign and (as per Lower Decks) Luna as the higher-end ships, but apart from them, there's only the rare Prometheus and the midget Nova so far. Plus, perhaps, eventually, Parilament (again thanks too LDS). Hard to pick from there. Unless we postulate that this generation will also come to feature a "top dog", a ship as big as or bigger than Galaxy, leaving the middling Sovereign as the workhorse. A bit like how the Excelsior originally appeared to be big and impressive, but then there came the Ambassador with the same saucer contours and shuttlebay shapes and whatnot, and the Excelsior was demoted to a jack-of-all-trades...
Timo Saloniemi
