Walt This is how TBs worked in their initial release. The general consensus was that they were pretty under-powered and they didn't see much use.
When TB first released, the beam was incredibly stretchy, IMO more like a bungee cord or rubber band. This made it nearly impossible to control an enemy ship because you'd have to move 100+ meters to really have an effect. It felt like a variable-strength magnet, which I agree was confusing.
Basically, it didn't behave like the two ships were attached together.
To use another analogy (you're probably tired of these): TB could feel like a car winch, which is probably what the sci-fi concept was based on in the first place. If one car's stuck, you hook up a very *inelastic* winch cable from another car. When you want to pull, you can either hold on the brakes and slowly run the winch motor, or you can rev the engine and tow the stuck car forward.
Walt I think they're also less intuitive that way compared to the current mechanic and didn't really fit the "fantasy" of what a tractor beam should be (i.e. something that actively pulls you in).
I actually think that this fits better with normal sci-fi tractor beams. In Star Trek for example, I've only seen tractor beams used in 2 ways. Either they immobilize and slowly pull in a much smaller ship, or they latch on to hold and tow a similarly sized ship. They've almost never used to quickly vacuum a ship in, especially not a similarly large ship.
