Comment on OBERTH CLASS by PUFFINSTUDIOS
You and I might, as well as Andrew Probert who designed the Connie refit... and the counter-argument to that is "in that case, how does the Miranda communicate?" 
Yeah. Not a bloody clue, which is why I don't buy the argument.
Here's another thing, why are the nacelles on the Oberth so close to the saucer? From what I understand, the Great Bird of the Galaxy wanted the nacelles to be on long pylons because of the radiation output or something. Granted, there is a TNG episode where they spend time inside the nacelle, but that can be argued around.
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Maybe I need to rewatch the Trekyards episode on the Oberth.
I think that was more Matt Jeffries's idea than Gene Roddenberry's, since the only thing Gene Roddenberry was interested in from a design perspective was "no rockets", "no fins", and to have it look "powerful". But yeah, same difference. Of course we've seen many ships that have nacelles close to the crew areas – the Defiant being the most famous example.
The common "fanon" explanation for the Oberth's saucer-nacelle arrangement, not supported by any on-screen evidence of course but not really contradicted either, is that the Oberth is actually just the top bit of the ship, the saucer and the nacelles, and everything below the pylons is a swappable pod. Quite why the traditional Oberth design needs such a big pod in relation to the rest of the ship, especially if the crew can't access it, is a good question that hasn't really been answered. The real-world answer is that the Oberth design was based on early concepts for the Excelsior and it was supposed to be a much larger ship, so turbolifts in the pylons wouldn't have been quite such a problem. This also explains the Oberth's slightly odd window layout.
I wish that TOS had a better budget for ships- who knows what really cool designs we never got to see. Hell, even some of the FASA designs would have been awesome to see onscreen.
Agreed. I'd have loved to see the Hermes/Saladin or Ptolemy.
There's a YouTuber called the Antitreker (not sure of the spelling) that argues that the big, glowing circle on the refit-Connie is actually a communication array and the deflectors are actually located at positions immediately port, starboard, and below the dish. Following that logic, I assume the deflectors on the Miranda would be on the dorsal side of the saucer where they stick out of where the hull rises to the plateau that is the aft of the ship.
Now, you and I may disagree with that, but it might help explain why there are ships without a super-obvious deflector.