4Game

I hope this is the right area for this, as this is more of a discussion post about two different ships. I'd also like to preface this by saying this is coming from a PVE perspective, and FA on player. I'd like to eventually try my luck against the crazy pvpers in this game, and am slowly trying to ease into FA off full time, but just am not quite there yet.
So just to be blunt about it, what's with the hate for the FDL outside of PVP. I'm still relatively new to the game, and the first ship that I decided to go fully in on was the chieftain. I heard it was a blast in pve, was more forgiving and nimble than the fdl, and that the fdl was less fun to fly. But like I don't get it.
Even with barely any engineering in both ships and FA on the FDL feels like a whole different beast even in pve. Granted I can see why some people would hate the cockpit view, but if you get past that it feels like the FDL wins out on most avenues.
The turn rate is slightly slower, but only outside of the boost profile, which feels like something I can consistently do more of in my FDL. The thrusters are what makes a huge difference for me too. It feels like in the Chieftain I often get into orbital battles, with both ships nose on each other in a turn fight firing away, and I can never seem to push myself behind the enemy ship for very long. But in the Lance, leaning on the thrusters I feel like I can stay consistently in ship blind spots, if not right behind them, even against small nimble vessels.
The hull is certainly much thinner in the Lance than the chief, but that insane shield almost makes me feel like I can stay in the fight for longer. In the chief I frequently had to return to base just because a module was getting low, but in the Lance if I'm on point in my flying it's like my shield never goes down meaning ammo seems to actually be more of the limiting factor. I actually ran out of MC ammo for the first time ever in my Lance.
Damage wise I'm still not sure. I really got into a PA rail gun build in my chieftain, and haven't gotten to explore too many options in the fdl yet. But, as far as Mc laser builds go, the fdl seems to slightly edge out the chief so far, I have to imagine purely because of the huge weapon slot.
I also have to imagine all of these factors become even more in the fdls favor once I g5 everything on both and learn fa off completely. So what's the deal? Why is the chieftain so much more recommended than the fdl? Is there something I'm missing? Or does engineering make the chief actually better all else equal?