I rolled a new imp char on TEH and had some really good games in my novadive equivalent (sorry, dont usually play as imp so the name escapes me) with next to no upgrades, really enjoyed hunting down gunships, getting some burst on bombers and flitting between bases.
I use my novadive in some matches depending on what the other team are using but the starter version certainly felt like it was lacking quite a lot compared to my partially upgraded one, i personally think it felt rubbish in comparison.