It's BO layout is different (and worse, most would say), and something Spidersmith's charts unfortunately don't reflect well is that the Federation Escorts get more shields than the Klingon Escorts.)

Crew has unfortunately basically no meaning. The Orion's special ability fighters is not that great, unfortunately, though I wouldn't necessarily call a single science console great either.
The Vor'Cha has less hull than the Assault Cruiser. The Neg'Var is closest to the Exploration Cruiser Retrofit, but the Retrofit has a special ability that can bring its turn rate way beyond that of the Neg'Var.

I am not necessarily saying you're wrong they seem better, but I know from context, the often simply are not. I think one the primary reasons is because KDF strategies look different from Federation strategies, and that makes certain aspects of a ship's stats more or less important. KDF strategies are build around their cloak -that means any ship that doesn't have cloak is a potential liability. It also is based on hit & run - that makes it every difficult to run effective healer builds, as your allies are constantly zooming in and out. So you want your Cruiser to be build more for a high DPS role (though DHCs are still not that great, despite the higher turn rate of Neg'Var and Vor'Cha) and to work as a "bait" for your enemies. That also means that you at least could use a better turn rate. On the Federation Side, you can build and play effective healers as people usually stay togther

That all mostly applies to PvP. In PvE, a thing like cloak is not that relevant (unless you don't have to kill anyone), but the turn rate and different weapon options might make a difference. (Though maybe not as much... NPCs don't tend to maneuver much, and the BO layout of the AC and SC at least beat the Neg'Vars.)