Fast, good, cheap - pick two.
I think we'd still have wanted the fuel tanks. Emergency Response means we spend more time at max cruise or emergency power and less at efficient cruise, which means practical range is much shorter than listed.
Now to be fair to the Newton the Saladin got that A- rank Tactical and S rank Cost by going for the bare minimum improvements to it's Scientific capabilities relative to the nearly half century old Curiosity (Science 8 vs Science 9).
My guess is that this change in priorities is a course correction in response to the Saladin's barely acceptable Science facilities as a Tactical Cruiser that can do a little Science work so instead of a designing a Tactical cruiser that can do some Engineering work they've instead gone for an Engineering cruiser that can hold it's own in a fight.
It's not like there isn't going to be plenty of spare transport to use at the destinations most of the time so 20 shuttles is fine.
Uh...actually there kinda is a lack of shuttles in many of those destinations. Emergency repair situations, screwed up colonies, and fresh construction sites aren't generally known for having a lot of transport capacity just lying around.
She has a total of 20, 16 in the loading decks and 4 in the engineering hull. The main difference is the lack of mission cargo bays for those four.
It has 20, check the secondary hull.
Noted. But point kind of stands - in a lot of cases, the 20 the Halley carries is the only shuttles on site.
Going by canon the only time you'd start to even approach this number of shuttles is with the Galaxy-class and its massive Connie saucer sized main shuttlebay, 20 will be more than enough for most of the conceivable scenarios this ship is going to be dealing with.
That's why I said this;
But if the difference between getting a job done is 2.5 vs 2 round flights, there are times that's going to be important.
