With Nubians always being expensive battle cruisers would be a significant advantage. I'd have thought that W expensive, slow tech and no AccBBS would have been enough, whilst still allowing high end tech.

Eh, HP gets crushed by HG in an AccBBS game. This is more of a level playing field than any real "advantage". Also, BET means that Nubians are double-price, which is a pain for the HP tech-lovers.