Actually, the bolded part of your reply got me thinking of another issue with this whole 1 person = 1 gun discussion.
Novaquark have categorically stated that, due to the networking limitations, combat in DU will be percentage-based, rather than aim-based (in other words, like EVE or WoW). If this is indeed the case, I'd imagine the job of being a gunner would be incredibly boring: sit at the turret, left click target, left click fire button, wait for the target to die or your ship to blow up. I dunno about you but I think such a role would bore me to tears, and I'm sure I wouldn't be the only one either. If they decide to go ahead with each turret requiring a gunner, then I'm pretty sure that the only combat that will take place will be fighters due to the fact that larger ship combat would just be flat-out boring for the players.
That said, I do agree that the other engineering stuff might be interesting to do.