It's not relevant for balancing, no.

But cost means nothing to balance.

But it cant. The zealot is slightly better.

But it is still balanced because it doesnt render the oem useless. CCP know you cannot balance on cost, they tried and it failed utterly. Ships will be balanced against the other ships of their class and those in the classes around it.

No it plays zero part in balancing. CCP have more or less said balancing on cost will not be happening at all. They are balancing on hulls and hulls alone.

They are being balanced against the t1 class ships so that they are only a bit better not not to the point where they dominate.

No. Cost is a product of balance (through the affect balance has on the demand for the item). It is not a factor in balance for the simple reason that it can never affect that balance. Something overpowered and costly does not mean it's not overpowered, and something underpowered and cheap does not mean it's not underpowered.

You're confusing cause and consequence.

No it not.

The cost is only what it is because of what players are willing to pay. This is why you can never balance anything with cost.

[snip]

The fact remains: if they changed the price on the Zealot to be the same as an Omen, the balance would not be affected in the slightest.

GǪthe price of which is almost entirely determined by players, and the cost difference of which is so small as to not particularly matter.

The fact remains: if they changed the price on the Zealot to be the same as an Omen, the balance would not be affected in the slightest.

No it isn't.

The zealot costs more as it is more difficult to build, the materials also cost more, HOWEVER, the costs are created by the player, not CCP.

GǪthat doesn't affect the balance between the two in the slightest.

No. I'm merely telling you that the balance between the two ships are determined by their respective stats, not their costs.

I'm telling you that cost is not a factor in balance because no ship has had its balance altered by its cost: awful ships are awful ships, no matter how cheap; overpowered ships are overpowered, no matter how costly; you cannot compensate for balance deficiencies by altering the cost GÇö not in EVE, not in any game ever. All cost does is delay the deployment (which is used in PvE games to adjust the difficulty curve line so that, while you come across more difficult enemies, you have now unlocked more powerful ships that deal with them as easily as the old cheap stuff dealt with the lower-class stuff you went up against before).

The fact remains: if they changed the price on the Zealot to be the same as an Omen, the balance would not be affected in the slightest.

Various other stats, but there's your other problem: you're assuming that balance means equality. It doesn't.