Robocraft is one of MANY examples where games have attempted to use this kind of model and it's failed. MWO also had a similar system they removed because of the same problems.
The only company which has actually managed to succeed to any real degree with a maintenance-like system is Wargaming (World of Tanks/Warships/whatever), and they as a company have openly ADMITTED IT WAS A MISTAKE. They've attributed NONE of their success to that decision, and have confirmed they succeeded IN SPITE OF using that model, thanks to a large collection of other factors which allowed them to get away with it.
How many of those factors are relevant to Dreadnought? Exactly ZERO. Not a single one.
There is NO way to get into this industry at this time with this model and have any realistic hope of doing well, ESPECIALLY when you're seeing - as the devs here have had ever since maintenance was introduced - mass exodus from your long-standing players.
Large numbers of long-standing veterans simply don't care as long as maintenance is being treated as non-negotiable. Even the promises to "fix" it are falling flat when there's been no fix incoming, and previous attempts to address it have made things objectively worse.
So they're losing the veterans, but they can bring in new players, right? Except word of mouth being spread by the new players is THE EXACT SAME RESPONSE THE VETERANS HAD, and is in fact even worse for them than most experienced players. The only people who are "happy" (even for those people, it's debatable) are the ones already on top who get wave after wave of lower-tier ships to curbstomp, and who have allies to work with when trying out lower-tier ships.
Teamwork, even with the current broken tier system, CAN give you enough of an edge to tip the balance against higher-tier enemies - IF they're only 1 tier above, AND you're playing well enough. T2 vs. T4 is still entirely broken, where T3 vs. T4 can be won if your team is better, AND better organised, than the enemy.
So for someone who's always either just that good or running with a decent coordinated squad to get an edge, it can look less of a problem than it really is. For an average player, and particularly for a less-skilled or new player, maintenance in its current form is absolutely at a level of being game-breaking. Even when done "right" (as right as such a system can be done) it's widely understood in the PC gaming market to be a terrible decision that will chase players away.