Does the Freelancer rework include modules for it, or is it staying strictly with the variant system?

No, it's the same variants as before.

Just making it better.

Not every ship is going to be the Retaliator.

It's just like in the real world, like you've been saying for a while. Some manufacturers utilized a variant system. Some manufacturers made their ships more modular. It has to do with the individual project. They're not all manufactured using the same process.

And they're definitely not mutually exclusive, because we can have very distinct variant hulls that still have modules that are interchangeable across the whole series, which also then can create a lot more different loadout and gameplay opportunities for just how do you want to set up your ship.

Yeah, I would love to see additional Retaliator hulls personally. I see the current Retaliator as the B-17G, the one with the nose turret and all of them.