If you do put it back into the snakepit. I guarantee you that everyone is going to capitalize on it to build as many Aux Shipyards as we can as well as some new berths.
... Is that supposed to be a bad thing?
President Arsharra N'Gir apparently.
I think that's a bit unfair. There's a difference between things that are wrong in the moral sense of 'violates our positive ideals,' versus things that are merely a bad idea.
Write-ins at Snakepit are extremely problematic because Oneiros is the only one who can decide what an option costs- and the Snakepit is all about budgeting.
Unless the restrictions are in the federation charter that's a cost, not something that stops us.
I can actually sympathize with the Developmercantile point of view on this. Who would run the peacekeepers except Starfleet? Without Starfleet, they'd have no way to get where they need to be and very limited resources for accomplishing their tasks.
Can we? We don't seem to have any in-story direct control over the budgets for auxiliary commands like Starfleet Engineering, Starfleet Medical and its hospital ships, or Starfleet Logistics.
The Federation already has them from member worlds. We just don't need them as a distinct organization under the purview of Starfleet. Having them as memberworld assets we can call up in times of need is just fine.
We, the players, don't have direct control OOC.
There may well be political constraints on that kind of thing. Like, the president of the United States has vast discretionary powers, but has to negotiate with Congress to get reallocations of budget money.
I'm not saying we need 'federal' peacekeepers; I don't think we do. My point is that if we DID have them they'd almost have to be at least an auxiliary branch of Starfleet because it'll be impossible for them to function without coordination with Starfleet and intense support FROM Starfleet.
They'd arguably have helped with the Caldonian crisis, and in handling Gammon during the Licori War, and in dealing with any future colonial crises.
I am pretty sure that is a deeply counterproductive strategy that will result in you not seeing much except "transport talk" for years.
To be fair, both the freighters and the peacekeepers ARE arguably in the Federation's best interests... from someone else's point of view. We've had people in this very thread argue that the Federation needs peacekeepers, and that making Starfleet "transport-neutral" is a good idea. And I'm pretty sure none of the questgoers are deliberately making bad political decisions for personal gain, since I'm not clear on what form that gain would even take.
... Yet.
