Blow them up? And waste a perfectly good ship that could serve MY needs?
Basically, I capture hostile ships where possible, though if they're dead in space it sorta ruins it a little so destruction it is

Still, as a test - and to prove it's the CREW AI that's died - I did capture a totally dead (not moving, not firing, not repairing) ship and, with my own crew on board, it seems to perform normally.
I'm hoping as blown up /captured ships are replaced that they work ok - appears to be the case so far. Though, of course, I'm ONLY doing this to PMC ships rather than friendlies.
Usually these sort of issues would trigger me to restart - however, I'd
just restarted for 2.0 and built up a nice little empire so really didn't want to again so soon.
Would still love to hear if ES discovered anything from my saved games? I suspect possibly some form of corruption as this isn't being widely reported, though others are having issues that may be linked.
Scoob.