Only recently got rid of a drop ship here, was using it for mining more than anything else, which its actually not that bad at as it got a decent mix of module types and could carry enough cargo to be profitable while still carrying other bits. And when bored could also pull combat duties without actually selling anything, just needed to pick your targets.
Range sucked for trading though so seldom bothered, the armour also seldom seemed to matter, lost three of them, all due to failed canopies with 60%+ hull remaining.
Gone back to an asp, currently kitted for fighting and trading, the mining build is ok, profitable, but fancied a change, dropping back to the Asp-E also freed up enough cash to kit it out nicely, likely to stay here until I have the cash for something a fair bit larger.
Biggest issue I found with the DS, in a combat zone its big enough to draw fire, and small enough not to survive it, slow enough not to out run it and lumbering enough to have trouble shooting back - the Asp-E gets ignored.