Here I thought that when that started it wasn't going to be all ranting about shakey cam.
Anyways the little models make better then perfect sense to me. One the humans don't believe in networking very much for good reason. So where the hell is a computer display going to get its data. Second it can't break down and can be maintained by like one guy as a secondary duty. Third for what is essentially a vanity for the viewer anyways little models are more visually interesting and timeless then drawing blips on a screen or scribbles on a map.
Also I have the exact opposite opinion of 1980s BSG. Battles? Try starship battle, singular. Even the best SW era effects get old when you only have five of them for the entire series. And characters and stories, yeesh almost as cheesy as Star Trek TOS but at the same time not nearly cheesy enough. And while rebelled against their masters IS ridiculously overdone if one must have robots then at least its better then For Teh Evulz because you've already... rebelled and killed your lizard masters.
80s BSG has its fun to be sure but I threw that toaster in the junk-heap 15 minutes into the real series.