I don't have an issue with the lifts all taking the same time no matter the distance, and the logic behind where the Cmdr ends up being pushed to if they don't step out of the lift manually seems okay to me too.
Something I like about the carrier lifts is that they are all to the side rather than at the back of the dock as some station lifts are, making the walk/sprint to/from the ship more reasonable for all ships. Having lifts at the rear of the hanger can be a chore for ships like the Corvette, Cutter & other large & medium ships with their entry at the front & moving them all to one side or the other would be good for me. On a carrier the elevators being always closer to the centre of the carrier rather than always to starboard would be good.
Having the option to take a bus or similar that travels past the docking pads might be good for immersion once or twice but would quickly become a chore, in that respect I think the walk from ship to elevator giving a sense of scale to the ships but then the elevator 'teleporting' the player from dock to social area is a good compromise between immersion and gameplay. I'd like to see more random NPC activity in the docks (loading vehicles, covers & pipes in different positions etc).