It's a luxury liner, with tonnes of wasted space and therefore wasted resources. It has children and families on board. It's supposed to be a ship of long range exploration - it's going to be going into hazardous situations. Things happen in space! But in the huggy fluffy pre-Borg era of Starfleet that's all ok, what could possibly go wrong, the Federation is perfect after all.
But this just makes it even more annoying when I see people slap an Imperial dagger on the hull and call it a mirror universe ship. A Defiant or Akira you could get away with it, but not a Galaxy class. People from the Terrain Empire that wouldn't be wasting space on luxuries (well aside from the command staff) and the families, it'd be a ship of war.
So how do I see an Imperial "Galaxy Class" starship. I see an assault ship, crammed with troops, transporters and combat shuttles and fighters. I see a ship that puts more power into its engines and weapons. I see a ship that has more weapons systems, more shuttle bays and is heavily armoured. A ship without a Captains Yacht but instead has a dedicated long range Scout craft. And finally, a ship where the saucer section has teeth and the neck is a little less dainty.
So I present to you my version of the imperial flagship, the Galaxy Conqueror class heavy assault ship.
This ship was not designed for regular game use, it's a bit poly heavy for that (although I have had 12 in game at once).