This is the same problem that came up on the SE IV Center forum BBs long ago, before the game was released. It's the old problem of which "style" of warfare is or should be better: carrier or capital ship? If you make fighters as powerful as they are today then a single fighter could carry a weapon that will destroy a ship with one hit. If you then get a carrier with 100+ fighters it's going to be invincible against almost any fleet without fighters to counter it. So, of course, people who prefer capital ships will complain that fighters are too powerful. If you try to balance fighters by giving PDC cannons a good chance to hit them and not giving them weapons that can destroy a ship with a single hit then fighter-oriented people complain that fighters are too wimpy.
You can't win! I have to admit that I cannot think of a way to make it exciting and interesting for BOTH sides myself. Either you're a carrier partisan, and think fighters ought to take out even capital ships with ease, or you're a capital ship partisan and you think fighters should be swept away by powerful ships. <shrug>...
[This message has been edited by Baron Munchausen (edited 25 January 2001).]