There's actually very little gains with increased move speed if you can't micro them. The only exception is Hermes, which actually listens to you. T1 (or any army in general) is easily stopped just by sending a force to intercept, making the AI engage in combat, while trying painfully to move away, turning, firing, blah blah (meanwhile you get frustrated spamming move command them to a different location you wanted).
Increased move speed also doesn't help you dodge a lot of fire power in the game (except for Artemis and Hades bombs I guess). It could be really nice if Hermes can dodge Avenger stream weapon by micro-ing (people are gonna jump at me for making the game micro-intensive here).
I actually think of a very different solution here. I actually want to reduces the number of cruisers on the field. I want cruisers to be more expensive and even more build time. They can also gains additional firepower but basically, they should be to T1 like dreadnoughts are to them. You sacrifice a lot of resources and time to get them (and being vulnerable meanwhile) but if you manage to survive, you gain a unit that can swing the tide of a losing combat. Basically, cruisers should also be an investment, just like dreadnoughts are, although less extreme. So people can cling to mass T1 to continuously (and visibly) increase their army power, while other players who manage to invest and survive will get better, stronger units.
I'm looking at something like Mauler can cost a whopping 800-1000 metal and alot more radio, say 200-300, last extremely long on the field but might take 90 seconds to build. Also, I want to reduce the "specialist weapon" of "effective vs X" units. I would like to see Maulers and Athena kill each other quickly, but not in less than 1-2 seconds, maybe they can beam each other continuously for 10-20 seconds and then die, while other units takes forever to kill them. Or Avenger severely damage T1 unit with its stream weapon, but not to the point of oneshotting (multiple Avengers would of course still rapes the shit out of T1, which is correct I'd say, so is Zeus). Or, another similar approach is that cruisers should cost a lot more radioactive (a LOT more, 100 to 200 to even 300), thus making surplus metal go into defenses and T1.
Basically, I want to have this feeling: Oh god, that thing is called Mauler, it looks bigger than the frigates around it. There's also only 1-2 of it among massive amount of frigates, it must be very strong 
. Then, later, more extreme: my fucking god, what is that thing (say Retributor), it looks even bigger than the Mauler! And it swims in an ocean of Maulers! (ok maybe i don't want to see an ocean of Maulers, but you get the point).
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. Then, later, more extreme: my fucking god, what is that thing (say Retributor), it looks even bigger than the Mauler! And it swims in an ocean of Maulers! (ok maybe i don't want to see an ocean of Maulers, but you get the point).