By Jove, I've got it!

If I had to describe Zeta Cygni in general and Gryphon's circle in particular with one word, it would be "nostalgic". Everything is built to look like something older, or is something older, from the architecture to the airships to the cars to the space fighters (and especially the music). Both times we've seen a character recently been trained to fly in space, they've gotten virtual reality "back in my day" tours.

Now, of course this nostalgia isn't crippling, or they wouldn't be living in a Dyson Sphere and building spaceships in the first place. And they certainly are on the cutting edge of technology. But the general belief that everything was better "back in the day" persists. I suspect half the reason the EA has the Starfury, besides the fact that it had it in Babylon 5, is that it doesn't look like a "proper" space fighter.

Of course, this is pretty much what space opera is about. It may not be correct to make a spaceworthy Arrow, but it certainly is right.