I'm curious how the change to shield consoles to science instead of engineering will change your view of one ship vs another? Will this change make the Advanced Escort edge out the Fleet Escort? Star Cruiser edge out the Assault Cruiser for tanking?

Based on forum threads stating that science consoles had the poorest of values amongst the 3 types, to the point of saying they were virtually worthless, I would say that all ships that have at least 1 science console just got a significant boost. Because now your go to 35% console occupies the previous and still worthless science console slot, freeing up a more valuable engineering slot. So the Bortas would be considered as having 8 valuable console slots and t5 bird of prey would have 6. This is purely based on the perception by players and the developers that science consoles are the least valued.

TLDR: No. The opposite of what you suggest is what has occurred.

Honestly to me it means I just check to see how many tac consoles it has to form an opinion on its strength as the other two are easy to negotiate around with universal consoles. I mean, you need your shield console, and you need your armor console usually. Then put the borg in the empty and maybe a shield regen or another armor or EPS and your done.

My main is an Engineer in a DSSV, for me I removed a Particle Generator out for the shield console. I added another Neutronium Alloy to that engineering slot, so my Gravity Well lost some damage and I gained roughly 10% more resistance.

My Tact in a Fleet Escort now has the borg console and shield in his science slots. He only has two science powers so not much of a loss there, in fact he gained more armor as well.

My Science in an Excelsior simply switched the shield console with the borg console that was in the science slot.

My Tactical in a Kar'Fi had its phase module removed and another armor piece added, her borg console remains in her science section.

My Engineer in an Orion Maurader switched his borg and shield console positions like my excelsior above.

My Science in a Bortas has the borg console in his engineering section.

That's my summary of my capped toons, let me know if you want an exact breakdown

So what your saying is this didn't make ships with more than one science console better than ones with one, it just made every ship with at least one science console better, simply because almost all the science consoles were worthless before except for specific situations I imagine. I mainly thinking about if i should get an advanced or fleet escort on my tac or a sovi or star cruiser on my engi, the latter doesnt really matter since i have an Odyssey.