Normally Id quote bits as I respond, but it makes the post too big. Youll get the idea.
Naming conventions aside, I think there will always be a need for tiers of space craft, just like naval vessles. It will mostly be defined by range and capacity. There will be the one-man fighter/scout (ill get to pilots vs drones later), your small carriers that hole a dozen-ish people and have limited range, and then various orders of magnitude larger (up to whatever your society can reasonably create and move) that house more people can can be sustainable further and further from your central resource supplies. At some point the larger vessels will also become mobile bases for the smaller.
Dont discount armor/shielding tech too much. In any long range space travel it will become something of a nessesity even outside of battle, since there is no limit to how fast spacejunk can move, and thus no limit to how much it will hurt when it goes right through your ship. In space, Mass is King, and even energy based weapons are going to move some of it, because in terms of particle beams, fusion devices, etc, space isnt all that empty, and at near light speeds even tiny masses have a real effect. But since you will need some sort of protection against your average space dust, a slow moving payload style weapon may still have a tactical use. It all depends on where your particular arms race stands at that point.
On the Drone vs Pilot discussion, there are a few things to consider, and again it all depends on your worlds personal arms race. Pilots are fragile, so it limits the maneuverability dramatically. However, as you said, the scale of space is a whole other thing entirely, so depending on the relative mix of weaponry vs engine strength, that may not be as prohibitive as it seems at first glance. With drones, you have a whole other set of possible shortcomings, though. Drones cane basically be one of two types: Remote and Autonomous. Remote control is dependent on line-of-sight communications, mights be jammed in various ways, and can quickly become vulnerable communication delays even at reasonably short distances for what you may see in space. Autonomous drones are limited by their programming sophistication, and have a their own list of vulnerabilities ranging from remote hacking to solar radiation interference to Skynet syndrome.
