OP, have you tried flying the ship to see if you like it? If you don't, then you won't have to engineer it. If you do, well, that's up to you then!
The Federal Gunship doesn't need engineering to be awesome. I'm having a blast with mine and wish I had purchased one sooner. Now I'm trying to convince my followers to at least try it out too. Very fun ship IMO.
Indeed
If the idea that there is too much effort needed to get results with engineer, and thus a loss of motivation due to the lack of progress felt towards the goal, then trying to find a goal that one can work towards and see results from immediately with the Federal Gunship might be the key, as once there is progress made, the motivate will flow from that for the non engineering goals.
During this engineering materials can be picked up so when one looks at engineering again some progress might be possible, if one is okay with not getting to G5 immediately.
Remote workshops work well here, as I have a Cobra Mk.IV I have been Engineering by Remote workshop only tier by tier just as the materials are obtain during doing other goals unrelated to Engineering, the HGE will pop up regardless of what you are doing, but you wont notice when the don't when they are the not focus.
A Little Story
Our Faction was undergoing an election, so I hopped over to help out by running missions.
There were a few Planetary scan missions so took them as they were the Inf+++++ ones and what I was after.
The first two too me to very scenic planets, that as it happened also had good amounts of the Raw Materials I had on my crafting list, so after scanning the outposts I spent a bit driving filling my hoppers.
The action of scanning the Data points in the outpost also provided some Data packets needed as well.
The Last destination was in a system with the target at 70Kls from the entry point so in the drive 3 HGE popped up providing the Proto Light alloys, Proto Radoilic Alloys needed and some Imperial Shielding I can trade away at the Material Broker for other stuff I need.
So by doing goals that I can focus on and get results from -> the election -> one can progress with the engineers if it is a back seat.
Of course Your mileage may way and it is about finding what motivates you, what goals you feel good about progressing towards that provide enjoyment, and what goals you may want but don't enjoy the progressing as