[quote=KabenSaal]
Hey look, more Gaia bait.But the difference between the standard and the em-max is massive. Either that ship must be incredibly under-staffed normally, or they just throw on 460,000 reserves just in case.
[/quote]I think you confuse crew numbers with passenger capacity.
Anyways whether it's for cargo or the passengers the "standard" value shows the ship's allowed capacity without compromising its other functions while the "maximum" is when the ship's temporally re-purposed for a certain function alone.
In case of max cargo/passengers the ship's emptied of almost anything else. No fighters, extra munitions or anything aside from the bare essentials on the ship to allow it to be filled to the brim.
These are the extremes like when these ships are used to evacuate people or somehow they require tons of goods or troops on the warzone quickly.

As for being "Gaia bait", I suppose in a fleet battle the Galaxian Empire's loses would be considerably higher than yours. On the other hand they can soak up sacrifices extremely well.
Though given how far your empire is I doubt the Imperial Galaxian Fleet would ever bother your borders.