in the modern world it's not uncommon that the appearance of a certain peice of weaponry or technology is almost the entire purpose, they serve as politcal barganing chips and their utility is based in their psychological power as deterrents and propaganda. of course this psychological power has to be based in the fact they actually... you know, work, but actual weaponry is like the gold standard of the military's political power, the fiat currency does the real action in our modern world. Its the same reason why "top secret" technology has so many of it's specs known, it wouldnt serve as a deterrent like intended if nobody knew about it. ofc goverments are always finding a balance and if their abilities are too concerning to foreign governments they will start an arms race, hence the balance of secrecy.
the point being that the appearance of craft alone does in fact say something about it's purpouse.