Defiant worth leveling?

I'm ops 46. I just got the defiant the slow way, 1 blueprint at a time for 100 days. I started a little late on it.

500 some days to max the ship is not feasible I think. I can fight level 54 armadas and I have not built my 46 rare ship yet. I can do max bajoran pulls as well of all types.

Is there any point in tiering my defiant up? Will it level up faster if I tier it up or should I leave it at level 1 for any reason?