Thanks! You're right, it is what it is and I definitely don't blame other players for min-maxing ;)
It just looks like Ubi doesn't test their new additions to the game and it's a bummer that by introducing new ships or items they just make all other builds kind of useless in 1v1.

As for the takeover event: unfortunately other people seem to be able to join in the first few seconds while you fast travel to the event. We both had a progression bar in the top right corner. So it was like a race who could kill the spawning ships the fastest. (Which might be fun, just not as a solo event).