I'll happily take your word on that - I haven't gotten far enough yet to see how crazy the gameplay can get. ;)
You might be able to balance it out then by making the direction the ship points and the direction it shoots independent from each other. If the ship faces in the direction it moves then I think that would make it clearer how it works, since it wouldn't feel like the mouse sets the ship direction, and then maybe have just the turret point toward the mouse?