You and the other folks mentioned in your post are absolutely stellar for the Armada community. Thanks for all that y'all do!

NATHAN CODA V DENNIS RASCHKE
Finals stream starts in 25 minutes!!!!
Only at SWAE
https://www.youtube.com/SWAEStarwarsarmadaexplained

It's that time of the year folks! Regionals Season starts this weekend. With the new season comes our annual data project, which attempts to collect lists and determine trends with the meta. It has gone a long way toward putting hard numbers behind problems. Throughout the season, you can go to this link and see what the data looks like:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14kjCf7_-KjTjAqMyUrXayZI8u9oBlqDyMLbYAMeaMxk/edit?usp=drivesdk
So what does that mean for you? First, I need lists. The more the better. No list, even last place, is unimportant because it all goes into the statistics. You can post lists to a thread, or message me, I don't care. The more detail the better. Second, I need to know what the community wants to look at. I'll be editing the formulas in the coming days to update from last season, but I only know what I think is important. I need to know what else to teach.

Hey!  If it isn't my friend BrobaFett!  I was the guy who lent you a Dengar at last year's Worlds Armada Competition.  :-)  Goodtimes!    I must confess, you inspired me a little with my handle name.  I didn't mean to steal your handle but utilize components that it would make it easier for people to remember me by when communicating on this forum.  I had another name in mind, but this won out because it was a little more universal.  Anyway, I have been unsuccessful in securing an Armada Ticket.  If you can't find someone to swap with I would consider buying your ticket.  Or if you know of someone else who can't go but has a ticket to Armada Worlds Competition, would you mind connecting us.  Thanks.
 

There is only one legitimate answer unless you are performing a leap of logic. 
And I even have the reason behind it, too:
 
 
You can elect to delete squads and ships.
You cannot elect to delete upgrades individually.
They can be deleted by virtue of a ship disappearing.
 
This is specific to discourage “teching” from Round to Round, as the minimum to delete an upgrade is a ship that would necessarily have to be purchased back.
you can freely detach upgrades that you do not wish to delete first (leaving them unattached yet paid for), but for example, dropping a Turbolaser would necessarily involve dropping a ship with that slot.
 
The designers did not necessarily want you to be able to AT ALL. 
What they have provided is an after-the-fact popular compromise.

Go to the FAQ. It has a section dedicated to the Corellian Conflict. Also you can just house-rule it. Corellian Conflict is not competitive play (it actually ignores the flotilla limitation) so agree with your friends the way you think is better.
FAQ here
Also to answer that specifically:
Q: Can a player voluntarily remove ships or squadrons from his fleet to reduce his fleet-point value?
A: Yes. However, ships or squadrons removed in this manner are treated as destroyed. The player does not recover resource points from their fleet-point value. Cards with unique names (such as title upgrade cards) that have been eliminated in this way cannot be purchased again by any player during the campaign.
 
The question is about ships and squadrons but you can realize it counts also for upgrades as the answer implies when it talk about titles.

Thats what happens whan an ISD trys to follow the falcon into an asteroid field...........
 
 

The ruling I'm happiest with is the Tabling rule, but I also understand why they had to combine it with a hard cap.  If they didn't cap the number of flotillas you'd still have the same lists depending on not losing the "big" ships while Flotillas acted as activation spam and support elements - something these lists were already designed to do.  Further, fleets like Tokra's Demo + flotillas list would still generally function by scattering flotillas around the board and leaving a single speed 4 flagship to escape any unfavorable engagements.  These lists were often boring to watch and difficult to counter as a fundamental aspect of the game mechanics, which is why they were so popular in tournaments.
I need to get in some practice games, but I know that ultimately this is going to be a better long term game to play and watch as a result of these fixes.  It makes so many classic lists viable once more, and makes so many potential future lists built around getting the most out of your normal ships more appealing.  My only real concern is that it seems to expose a weakness in that Imperials having more expensive ships at the moment.

@cynanbloodbane I completely agree with you regarding a list with one ISD and 3 flotillas for support.  I wanted to run a similar list.  That's why I bought a third Gozanti.  It's challenging to build a list with a cool squadron compliment and a powerful ISD without the use of flotillas.  This archetype has DEFINITELY been hurt and should not have been.  There is risk inherent in running it.  With the changes to relay, which I thought were appropriate, the flotillas in this scenario are involved in the conflict in a relatively close proximity rather than from across the board.  
I also agree with you @thecactusman17.
The rule change that I have the hardest time with is the tabling rule if your one capital ship remaining is a flotilla in conjunction with the flotilla cap.  It's too much.  A flotilla can be used as an objective ship to secure points in other ways for your fleet and for fleet archetypes that aren't necessarily abusive.  They are an element to your fleet's assets that can contribute to it's success in defensive and offensive ways.  When someone takes a third of their force in squadrons, there is a risk associated with a reward related to how many resources you commit to that element.  I realize it's a game about capital ships and that if you eliminate all capital ships regardless of victory tokens that you earn with squadron resources you utilize at the risk of being tabled.  But, to add on the risk of being tabled by losing a flotilla when to support a fleet they need to be in some proximity to it?  It's just too much.   

I will say that I just recently started poking back into Armada, and feeling like I had to invest in a bajillion flotillas is part of what made me bail earlier.
Now I can just pick up one more of each flotilla for “just in case” situations and go on with flying big ships, which is what I want to do when playing Armada.  
Also it will be easier to get new players, since watching two star destroyers and some tie fighters duke it out with some MC cruisers is so much more evocative and iconic than a corvette and a dozen transports sniping the other mass of transports.
Someone new to Armada gets more interested (in my experience) watching Raddus drop a Liberty in from hyperspace in the rear arc of a star destroyer and watching the tables turn than watching a flotilla spam battle.

Thrawn's Regenerating Avenger 
Author: Cynanbloodbane
Faction: Galactic Empire
Points: 400/400  
Commander: Grand Admiral Thrawn
Assault Objective: Advanced Gunnery
Defense Objective: Hyperspace Assault
Navigation Objective: Dangerous Territory
 
[ flagship ] Imperial Star Destroyer Kuat Refit (112 points)
-  Grand Admiral Thrawn  ( 32  points) 
-  Avenger  ( 5  points) 
-  Damage Control Officer  ( 5  points) 
-  Boarding Troopers  ( 3  points) 
-  Electronic Countermeasures  ( 7  points) 
-  SW-7 Ion Batteries  ( 5  points) 
-  Assault Concussion Missiles  ( 7  points) 
= 176 total ship cost
 
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Quad Laser Turrets  ( 5  points) 
-  Repair Crews  ( 4  points) 
= 32 total ship cost
 
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Suppressor  ( 4  points) 
-  Quad Laser Turrets  ( 5  points) 
-  Repair Crews  ( 4  points) 
= 36 total ship cost
 
Gozanti-class Cruisers (23 points)
-  Vector  ( 2  points) 
-  Quad Laser Turrets  ( 5  points) 
-  Repair Crews  ( 4  points) 
= 34 total ship cost
 
2 Firespray-31s ( 36 points) 
3 TIE Interceptor Squadrons ( 33 points) 
1 VT-49 Decimator ( 22 points) 
1 Lambda-class Shuttle ( 15 points) 
2 TIE Fighter Squadrons ( 16 points) 
= 122 total squadron cost
Not abusing anything. An ISD with support ships and squadrons. Designed for survival. 

My Sato railgun transports. Three combat transports with disposable capacitors accompanied by a MC30 and Salvation and all rogue squadrons. I won a small tourney with it.
I really hate the hard limit of two. I think making them be tabled when all ships are gone would have been enough, or some other kind of soft limiter.

More on topic, lets see what lists were actually harmed by this change.  The presence of flotillas wasn't just about activation spam (though it certainly helped some lists with that), it was also about providing cheap platforms for a number of support upgrades including officers, titles, Fleet Support cards, and Offensive Retrofits.

Lists that are likely dead:

2+3 Yavaris Aces:  So many changes to this list archetype and good ****ing riddance.  This list is dead.  D-E-A-D dead.  The flotilla cap has reduced the number of functional squadron augmentation upgrades (and bonus activations), Gallant Haven no longer makes squadrons immune to small damage amounts, and Yavaris can no longer scoot and double tap bombers or CAP squadrons.  The Relay nerf has only affected this list significantly by making cross-board token farming more difficult, as compact organization into an impenetrable brick of heavily augmented squadrons is a highlight of this archetype.

1+X farm lists (Cymoon+flots, Fish Farm):  These lists will still exist in some form, but with slightly fewer activations and likely minus any squadron cover they might have incorporated.  This is going to be as much due to the change to Relay as the reduction in flotillas.  We'll see far less in the way of board-spanning farm operations with fewer flotillas and limited relay distances.
@Tokra's Bull**** pocket carrier lists:  This is the biggest loss to Germany since the War! (joking, joking)  But in all seriousness, the idea of playing a half dozen scattering flotillas and activating squadron screens from across the board to eliminate enemy squads and a few small targets was very effective and very safe (though its overall power was somewhat diminished over the last few waves).  And it is now very, very much finished.  Of all the list archetypes available, this one is the most thoroughly eliminated from competition play as it is the one most dependent on the major nerfs to Flotillas and Relay.

Hi everyone - I'm proud to present the videos of the Top 4 playoff at our Canadian Nationals last weekend.  Real talk - Star Wars: Armada is my favorite FFG game and I'm always exctied to create new organized play content to share with everyone, as there's always been a dearth of OP videos (where did the Worlds 2017 final video go?)  Big thanks to my commentators Kristjan, and Brendon from the Galactic Conflict Podcast - I wanted to do commentary myself but I couldn't resist having those two on the mike, and they have great chemistry together.
Semifinal first up:
 

@Baltanok was looking for the lists, so I've put them up in a TTT event - the tournament was run on other software and I don't have access to the file, so it's just a place to hold the lists. https://tabletop.to/sw-armada-canadian-nationals
 
Here are the standings after the conclusion of Swiss so you can compare it to the lists in the TTT event to get an idea of what ended up where.