[PvK]

Ships with stacked attack bonuses from high-tech components and/or weapons with to-hit bonuses. Bases or planets (or Massive Base Ships) with Fire Control Centers that allow capital ship DF weapons to hit fighter stacks (remember losing all the fighters from your ungodly-large carrier armada in Adamant 0006 to the Xi'Chung AI homeworld?). Also, high-tech ships can have very high damage resistance from shields and armor, which fighters don't hurt very much.

It's true though that early-mid game empires should all have some defensive fighters, or they will be vulnerable to enemy fighter attack. Kind of like real warfare since World War 2, or much science fiction.

Fighters are a bit like drones, though, in that one of their main advantages is that SE4 doesn't charge any maintenance for them, so you can stockpile a practically unlimited number of them in peace time. This makes them seem cheaper than they really are, when you're not in a serious war. If you have to keep up with combat losses, then their costs and shipyard time comes into play.

PvK