Who decided that Anaconda is the best exploroship there is? Certainly not me. Some people think the best exploroship=ship who gives most ly jumprange, and frankly thats a boring way to look at things. And mentioning looking at things, Anaconda isnt that good for looking at things. What does exploration mean to individual commander may differ but the ship that offers quickest reach to beagle point with least amount of jump does not make that ship the best exploroship in my humble, and probably some others opinion, because I believe the main task there is to go sightseeing and finding new things, which can be done for a lifetimes lenght in a slightly modified Sidewinder. Finely tuned one would get a comfortable 30ly on it I think. Except very specific tasks like reaching a hard to reach corner of the galaxy, a good range that will save you from being stuck in between the gaps of far away stars is just enough. And thats more or less like 30ish ly range. Which brings us back to the question, if your intent is to just explore systems, you'd do just fine, considering jumping into a sector and scan systems one after other making 2ly jumps, one doesn't even need 30ly range. And frankly I cant wrap my mind around to find a reason for the bigger size the better approach for an exploroship too.
Ive done exploration on non engineered ships (hmm I think it there was no engineers in that time), engineered jump monsters and yes, to answer Verminstar on "how many explorers have anything in the hardpoints?" I have even explored in riddiculusly heavily fitted combat animals like a Corvette or heavy Anaconda with more or less 17-20ly ranges that were able take on PvP or a full fleet of elite NPCs head on and especially enjoyed my own unique approach to exploration with those. They did their job perfectly fine and as a person who enjoys "being prepared for anything" levels more or less on par with Batman himself, I enjoyed my time with them and enjoying their unique styles with all of them and took on the challenge of their disadvantages head on, so i dont know, surely we can always use and enjoy new and more ships but FD is currently giving us that.
All ships are (can be) exploro dedicated ships and scouts unless you've busted your FSD drive or forgot your ADS, DSS and scoop (and optionally SLF, SRV, AFMU) at home. We are good.
My next task in hand is to build a super sleek explorocourier. It's gonna be pretty legendary, I think. Mad thruster speed, 30-40ly performance, luxury look, unique cockpit... oh nevermind, don't get me started on building too much eagerness thinking about that [big grin]