So, we all know the devs have a massive list of work to do. With this large quantity of tasks, it's understandable that they don't get to play the game too much. This is why I suggest having a small group of dedicated players to help test balance for new/old ships. These should be players who are very familiar with the mechanics of heavy as well as light ships, players like Spellcast, Eldrad, Shape and Niki come to mind. Players who would be impartial in their suggestions in terms of nations.

What's the difference between this and what's on the test server? The player balance team would need to devote a large portion of their time to testing out certain changes the devs had made, or in the case of the test server, maybe be given the ability to make ship changes there themselves. These players would then be in direct contact with the devs via e-mail or maybe even phone so that feedback would be prompt. The player balance team would work closely with the devs to find a good balance for ships and weapons in the future.

If you look at most MMO games, the devs are rarely the ones doing the majority of the testing/balancing. They just don't have the time, and understandably so.

That would be something similliar to the Multiplayer Dev Team the Battle for Wesnoth has. It works nicely there.