Okay. No to FTL nerf, imo. I don't believe we really need to make any changes, unless people do literally start appearing out of no where on the surface of worlds. Precision FTL jumps (such as jumping in a formation or jumping 'close' to an enemy ships) could be acceptable depending on technology, but mostly I feel that jumps to arrive in systems are fine, and jumps to retreat are fine 

Further, the political divisions you mention results in a sort of cold war. I think this is acceptable as its a logical outcome global or in this case galactic society, splitting into alliances. And alliances are rarely balanced, that's why they constantly try to outdo each other, IE the West and East. If you see a divide forming and realise your side is weak, its best to try and get more people to shore it up
The seemingly perpetual high alert of fleets is odd, though some nations could legitimately have that.

Lets not start the Equestrian debate again, really, by now its obvious that it's just a waste of everyone's breath because nothing happens
Speaking on magic, as long as we're not going back towards the blowing up suns, fleets and destroying entire species types of magic, racial traits are fine. However, if its declared that strong ability in it is "rare" then it should actually be rare to have powerful magic users.
I wouldn't say duck lacks creativity as much as he simply doesn't like leaving his comfort zone. If we're honest, void of the stars and star empires were pretty much the same RP. The EU shares the same core of the Equestrian Empire, but base values are not always indicative of society being the same as another with similar values, though the current EU is somewhat more plausible than its predecessors.