I know the brand/studio reasons, but all I can come up with for in-setting lore reason is that Mirandas require less resources/crew/maintenance, but it still seems like a sharp contrast between the service lives of both ships where, as far as I can tell, the Excelsior-class may have required more resources/crew/maintenance and that judging by size and a history of jankiness alone (I love the ship, I really do, but it’s still an in-setting thing) and even the Constellation seemed to be kept around at least a little longer than the Constitution.
Anyone got any sources about this that make it feel justified besides the studio/suits deciding “we don’t want audiences to confuse anything on screen for the TMP refit” ?
Could be due to crew numbers? I mean compare pikes Enterprise to TOS era, and double the crew gets you a lot less quarter space (pike’s quarters in particular clearly get subdivided to hell by TOS). Maybe they were too cramped with increasing crew numbers.
Looking through MA it mentions they were meant to have an operational lifespan of 18-odd years, given their battle positions and exploration use (both high attrition) it mught be that they were seen as the sweet spot between endurance and disposable