I just started playing TA and I'm finding that the ship designs that are included are able to hold more gear than the ones I design myself.

Prior to selecting a ship template, a laser III is listed as having a size of 6.  A small template has 24 slots so it should be able to hold 4 of these.  If I use a Phoenix M3, it has 4 of them equipped.  If I try building my own small ship, however, the second that I select a ship template the laser III becomes size 7.

Is this intentional?