Whether or not Steve can improve the AI (probably) or whether he wants to take the time and effort to do so in a passion project I don't know. I can say that it would probably be a huge investment in time to make meaningful improvements to the kiting AI.
I've seen kiting work against AI in expensive AAA titles.
Steve also seems to prefer the kinds of stories where wars are won on the strategic and logistical scale rather than by superior tactics. That is, ensuring that the player's forces have the advantage in every engagement, avoiding engagements if there is not an advantage, and avoiding wars if the enemy has the advantage. So while improving the AI is an ongoing project, advanced tactics are not so far something that has been very interesting for Steve as the programmer it seems.
As for the AI adjusting their design philosophy on the fly in response to the player? I can say with lots of certainty that this doesn't happen. I'm pretty sure each AI race has a design philosophy set at race creation. And adheres to that until they die.
This is correct. There is currently no allowance in the DB or game code for the NPR to change its design doctrine. To a certain extent the NPRs will gain intel on the player's ships and learn a few things about how to counter them, but this is purely on a tactical level and not to the degree of advanced formation tactics.
It is unlikely such a change would help anyways, at least unless the NPRs were strategically able to keep up with the player (i.e., economically) to build large enough empires that a single war of conquest will not wipe them out in less than a year - and the diplomacy features extended to support negotiated peace. Right now, most player-NPR wars are decided in a pretty short time as the player crushes the NPR fleet and invades or annihilates their colonies; most of the challenge is on the strategic and logistical side, or in not provoking a higher-tech opponent (or else building super-cheesy designs to exploit the NPR, if you're a boring person
). Otherwise, I think long-term campaigns with multiple player races are the way to go for people who want serious intrigue, at least until the diplomatic toolkit and AI are significantly expanded.