Paladin is NOT french in the movie.
The Kilrathi in the movie were closer to the original idea Roberts had, plus, they were cheap. The movie had a very small budget, so taking the cheap route was required in some areas.
"Why can't Origins or whoever design WC so that you can command more fighters, like maybe 30, i.e., a "true" wing"
Because Wing Commander is an action game, Homeworld is a strategy game.:-)
Yep, like Phoenix pointed out, try to avoid X vs Y threads.
Besides, trying to compare ships between two different universes set many years appart is impossible...
Most of their capships are pretty good, the Manta is better than a lot of the fighters we see in SO, the Squid would be a very effective fighter if the dumb AI knew how to use it effectivly. Same goes for the clustered ships.