The thing about the Clipper.. The large landing pad is a big minus and no matter what you do with it, there is always another ship (in the same/lower tier) that will do the job better.. but.. it is absolutely beautiful and a real treat to fly (it has one of the best supercruise handling for its size).
I use mine for mining and HGE farming as I absolutely hate the Python.
The two advantages of the Clipper are its high speed/maneuverability, and its class 7 slot. If you're not going to use those things, you're better off using a different ship.
But if you ARE going to use those things, it can be the best possible option. For example, say you want to hack data transmitters. The Clipper is by far the fastest and most maneuverable ship that can mount a c7 recon limpet controller. So if you, for example, want to hack two different data transmitters on an installation, the clipper will do it about twice as fast as any of the alternatives, which means filling up your data mats in half the time.
As far as combat is concerned, a Clipper with a C7 biweave has DOUBLE the regen of an FDL. Less absolute shields, theoretically, but even that can be largely mitigated by its larger number of optional slots.
I'm not saying that the clipper is good, it's not, but it's certainly got a few places where it can shine...IF you build it right.
