no maintenance ... am i missing something?

[Arakiel]

I've been reading the the dubious strategy guide that it's possible to get a race with only 5% maintenance, and that the 0% maintenance was no longer possible (a patch?). Out of curiosity I tested this out and can't see the culture types making ANY impact whatsoever. Here's my test:

I used the same ship design in all 3 tests:
frigate, bridge, crew, etc, 2 engines, 1 warhead, 1 robominer

the maintenance on the above was as follows (as near as i can tell)

Engineer culture, Maint Char 120%. 205/5/25
Merchant culture, Maint Char 120%, 205/5/25
Normal culture, Main Char 120%, 205/5/25

now...im not one to complain much since 205/5/25 beats 1025/25/125 for a vanilla race any old day, but i cant help but feel that im missing something here. did i test something incorrectly?

-Arakiel