So, it seems folks care greatly about what ship number they are on.

Is it reasonable, do you think, to assume that the Ship1 and Ship2 from cbt will be Ship1 and Ship2 in Release?

Or will they randomize them into the "final" ship list?

I guess it doesn't matter one way or the other.

Ship 1 and 2 will be the exact same ships from CBT. No changes will be made to them.

No changes will be made. So you can rest easy that they'll be the same in Open Beta / Release.

Especially considering one of the GMs specifically numbering a ship with its name pair: https://forum.pso2.com/topic/68/section-rules

it would be hilarious if they shuffled the ships around to make ship 1 ship 5! it would also be funny if they just randomized what ship accounts were on to me though.