If you change your scout thrusters to the turn speed model and upgrade it, you get like a 12% tighter turn on the stock scout, plus another 10% at the bottom of your Barrel Roll's(or your missile dodge of choice) upgrade tree. The tweaks are there and you should handle pretty differently from other ships as you personalize your build.
I didn't get to play Descent Freespace, but the controls feel very similar in my memories to Descent 1.