You do realize that the mobula can back up almost as quickly as some ships can go forward right?
Did you make that up? Mobulas' top speed is among the worst in the game (only junker is slower) and acceleration is not THAT important, because you never run from enemy without using kerosine or moonshine, so since every pilot uses those it's easy to hit top speed where mobula will start losing against pretty much every ship, not to mention that if mobula tries to run in anything but open space, it can get stuck or bump the terrain a lot easier and it can't get around cover as easy as others ships can, since it has terrible turning speed. Acceleration only comes into play in close range engagement and even there it only really helps if you see enemy coming. If they don't approach you head on, as they shouldn't, then acceleration or top speed won't help you much. There is a reason why every ship in game dodges vertically mostly. Only scenario where top speed and acceleration really helps usually is when you start running from fight (like when your ally dies and you decide to disengage), in which mobula is terrible and usually can't escape this way. So it's actually other ships who benefit from acceleration and top speed more.
Oh, and once you do close, the vertical acceleration and speed of the mobula let it run circles around any other ship in the game.
You can't dodge forever. You can hydro, but so can enemy, the difference is that after that hydro, you can lower altitude faster than other ships and that's only dodge you will usually get before you damage your balloon. If you do the opposite and first dodge down with stamina for example, enemy can still follow you down, especially with healthy, buffed balloon and stamina, after that you can hydro and they can hydro as well. It's just buying time essentially. Sometimes it will save your life, but not always, especially if you get flanked and enemy hurt your balloon in the process. That's all part of turning their strenghts against them. You have plenty of ways to hurt their balloon and thus making them pretty much stuck and unable to properly dodge. Carronade can still do the job, no matter how people cry about it (even though i very much agree it didn't need that nerf). You don't actually have to kill balloon, which you can easily do with lochnagar if you want, but you just have to heavily damage it and they won't be able to dodge.
Squid included.
Squid can't keep up? Please, did you even watch any squids in competitive? I've seen plenty dancing with mob and killing them sooner or later.
You shouldn't be turning much in a close range engagement, mobulas simply don't need to.
Haha, can you please read and think about what you just said?
Hull isn't that important in a mob actually, the balloon is life tho. Speaking of which:
Balloon is life? Well, yes it's pretty much impossible to miss it with any gun, hurt it and there won't be so much life anymore, simple yeah?
Hull might not be top priority on mobula indeed, but if your armor is down, you're very susceptible to get insta killed by rams, heavy flaks, or even suiciding if you dodge into the terrain. Like I already said, you can't dodge forever and if your balloon is not healthy it's even harder to succesfully dodge.
While hull is slim, balloon is huge. Which means once it's broken it's easy to land all the shots that will go straight to the hull. But you already know that.
TL;DR reduce both the vertical acceleration and speed. The Mobula has alot of inherent advantages. It doesn't need the vertical mobility it has.
Take that away and it's not mobula anymore, it's a fat spire. That's like suggesting to take two engines away from squid or one side of guns from junker. Vertical mobility is the most defining "characteristic" of mobula. Why would you want to take away what makes ships unique? And of course it needs that speed. it doesn't have horizontal speed like I already mentioned above, it's clumsy at moving around terrain, it has terrible turning speed, so what's left? Yeah, that's right, vertical mobility.
I very much agree with Daniel that mobula is most balanced ship in the game. It has unique design, it has strenghts and weaknesses, it provides many different possible builds, crew combos and strategies. That for me means it's well balanced. If a ship is only useful with one build or only in one situation or against one type of enemy, then that is IMO not balanced and it's boring and something needs to be done with that ship. Everyone should strive to make muse buff other ships so they are more like mobula, diverse and provide more possible and effective builds and roles that ship can do.