In my eyes... Shadow/Vorlon ships differed in different aspects of design. One should separate the basis of technology from the superstructure of organisational model.
1. Vorlons
Regardless of size and power (fighter, transport, cruiser or planetkiller) Vorlon ships followed a similar line of design.
Within this unified line, ships differed individually. Possibly with the exception of fighters... most were crewed by actual Vorlons who doubtlessly, despite their wacky attitude of "we are all Kosh" were individuals and customized their ships. If Vorlon ships were sufficiently alive, they probably also customized themselves.
That their ships were built strong, and one Vorlon cruiser could easily deal with multiple Shadow vessels... hints that whoever operated the ship was valued, and the ships themselves were valued.
2. Shadows
Each line of Shadow ships (fighter, reconnaisance, battlecrab) followed a different configuration, but within this line, individuality seemed very limited. Probably cheap mass production -- so cheap that they even dropped some adaptive ability.
Instead of having the ship survive long, they might prefer it living just long enough to reach "profit" (whatever their measure of profit be) and upon being defeated, returning information about the opponent.
Improvements would be added to the next batch -- which if needed, would come soon enough. Since they always accepted defeat... perhaps they never intended for many ships to survive one period of chaos.
They didn't fly their ships personally... and in their treatment of other beings... apparently most Shadows had developed double standards. While encouraging individuality in those who they asked questions... they hard-wired ship cores in manners which destroyed personality.
To draw more conclusions about their design (and to which degree it contains elements of order)... one should know what they preferred for themselves. But we never saw a Shadow personal transport.
Perhaps only a planetkiller, being large and possibly crewed... might indicate what they preferred for themselves. That "ship" was seen under Shadow control only in "Into the Fire".
