Well I am not too fussed about polys in KA2, since the major thing that slows down a game is not polygons, its actually weapons fire (2d) and things like emitters etc. Infact I remember a discussion when I used to mod CnC Generals. Someone did a test, and a model of 6000 polys didn't slow down the game. However, a model of 1000 polys with particle emitters made it crawl. A2 Particle Emitters are far less intensive but, you get the idea.
However, that said, very high polys do make me, well best way I can describe it is an itch. I can't rest until I have it down to what I think is reasonable. As a rule, there is no model over 3000 polys in KA2, and most are below 2000. I poly reduced the Oberth down to 800 because I felt 1400 was too high for an escort (even though ironically I never find myself using many Oberths. I use them mainly in 1 or 2s in a Destroyer Flotilla or Light Cruiser Squadron to detect cloaked ships, I use Okinawas and Okinawa-S starships more than Oberths)
Although I have tried to make KA2 look as good as possible, I have resigned myself to the fact that due to lack of many detailed models for most ships (particularly Romulan and Gorn) it will never be seen as a top mod graphically. I know there are lots of nice models for TMP Fed and even Klingon ships, but I don't like the grey klingon ships, the brown/green romulan ships or the style of most of the Fed ships, and I prefer a unified look over high detailed models. The ships in a fleet need to look like they were made in the same shipyards from the same sort of materials around the same time period. Thats more important than ultra detailed high res ships.