Bigger is better?

I am now getting to the point where I have enough money and knowledge to begin to field cruisers more often, and with more effectiveness. Now normally a bigger ship is something to aspire to, and many pilots throughout this galaxy no doubt stare with slack jawed reverence at ships they immediately assume are better purely because they are bigger. Not me though. Admittedly I haven't had the greatest amount of experience with cruisers, but what little I've had has shown me that perhaps bigger is not always better. Not that I'm saying cruisers or battleships are useless, far from it, but I don't think that they are superior in every way to ships smaller than them like some people seem to think.

Cruisers have many advantages over frigates; they can field more fearsome weaponry, a bigger tank, and it expands your range of targets. On the downside however, they cost a lot more, are slower, and easier to hit. These last two in particular, seriously increase the number of potential enemies as well. Gate camps that I could have easily avoided in a speedy frigate, are now lethal to a much slower cruiser. The same goes for when you attack another pilots vessel. Where before, my speed and size protected me from damage, in a cruiser with it's much larger signature radius, I would be well and truly hit. A couple of examples would here and here.

As with everything in this universe its risk/reward: with greater risk, comes greater reward, and ultimately I will take the step up to bigger ships. After all, I can't stay small time forever!