I wanted to share a tale of two Belligerents, and hopefully alleviate a few concerns at the same time.
Attached are two versions of the Belligerent; one from the existing S:AE, and the second from the upcoming S:TNB.

While it might look as though the new version is much more abstracted, in reality it's not much different.

WEAPONS:
Fusion beams: both have multiple dice in the forward arc [AB] versus [FF].
Lightning turrets: Both have multiple dice in three arcs [ABCD] versus [FX], [ACE] versus [PB], and [BDF] versus [SB].
Close defense cannons: Both have multiple dice in several arcs: [AB] versus [FF], [AC] and [CE] versus [FP] and [AP], and [BD] and [DF] versus [FP] and [AP].

The amount of offensive dice in each arc is proportional between the two systems.

Both have the same thrust, as well as Countermeasures (ECM), Fire control, and Hyperdrive.

The main difference in damage mechanics is the fact that location is simply not rolled for after every hit. While the new system may abstract that to some degree, at 1/3 and 2/3 damage the results should be similar (using the default damage reduction method), while optional rules are in place to approximate S:AE more closely.

I'm definitely not trying to convert anyone, but simply trying to show first hand that the two systems are not as dissimilar as people first think, and that there probably doesn't need to be quite as much teeth gnashing over the supposed loss of detail. 

Kevin