That was supposively the direction that starship design took beginning with the introduction of the Intrepid class: ships that were smaller, more efficient, and mission specific, as opposed to ships like the Galaxy that were big, needy and could "do it all," although I forget where I read that bit. The TNG 'tech manual maybe?
The Galaxy class is relatively weak for two reasons: Arrogance-during the Galaxy's inception the Federation was flourishing with the peace they had with the Klingons, the Romulans were no where to be found and the Federation ruled the known galaxy, more or less. So heck, why not build a giant spacecraft that could even take families along with it, ignorant of any danger in outer space. The Galaxy was called the ship of peace because it was conceived during peace. The Sovereign and all of that other stuff were products of wartime, when the Dominion, Borg and everyone else was trying to take the Federation.
Secondly, the writers hadn't thought of "advanced" weaponry beyond what they had for TNG-remember that the D was state of the art and few ships could touch it in the series. If the Galaxy had been conceived during the First Contact days it too would be bristling with the newer quantam torpedoes, type XIII phasers, pulse phasers and whatnot.
Besides, with 12 phaser banks, 3 'torp tubes AND the ability to split into two fighting vehicles I still say "bring it!"