7.4M in Caldari Dropships here, and I run almost exclusively Pythons. I feel like dropships get about 10% of the attention that tanks do on the forums.

I've never been a fan of armor tanking, so I can't comment on Gallente dropships, and I only spent a limited time with a logistics dropship before I streamlined my SP with my respec, so I'll really just talk about Pythons.

PG: Pythons really don't have powergrid issues. People might complain and say they do, but those people want everything. You can't run 3 extenders, a booster, 2 damage mods, and blasters. You can either run a very tanky dropship with 3 extenders/booster and 2 power diagnostic units, or you can run an attack craft with 2 extenders/booster/resist amplifier/2 damage mods. If you're trying to equip a CRU on it, you aren't comprehending what an attack ship is for.

HP: Pythons make up for health with maneuverability, but when you can be 2-3 shotted by a railgun there isn't much room to act. As for everything else, it seems to pay off.

Railguns: If it took 1 more shot to take me down, I'd be OK with that

Swarm launchers: Easily outran, and 1-2 launchers can be absorbed for a little bit before you've got to bug out. I think they are OK as they are.

Forge Guns: Lower tier forge guns aren't that scary, but the higher end ones can take 4/5 of my health in one shot. They aren't quite as bad as railguns, but a bit more health would still be desirable.

AV Nades: Every now and then, I fly low and get peppered by AV nades. If you are in a dropship and you die to AV nades, you need to petition CCP for a respec into something else. Hold L1 and you're home free. No complaints about AV nades.

Turrets: It's really hard to hold a blaster steady on somebody, so missiles are my preferred option. They don't take much PG, so that goes back to our first section. I honestly wish I could get rid of my side turrets, I spend so much time moving my ship to line up my own shots that anybody on my turret tends to shoot me more than the enemy (which is annoying as it throws the ship around). I just throw ST-1's in there to cut costs and CPU (I also didn't max out my CPU skills because I don't need to in order to run my fit).

Red Line: The red line infuriates me. I have no counter against tanks and forge gunners in the red line. FGs are easier to deal with as they have little range, but HAVs can fire clear across the map without exposing themselves. Everybody seems to argue that I should grab a FG and go hunt them down, but the process of doing that would take me like 90 seconds to get back to their red line, and then they'd just take cover.