5 Carriers versus 2 Starbases

I just checked with a high tech game. You can put an EPP on the base. You can pop it. But they took away all the buttons such as drop cargo remotely that were allowing bases to move. So Carriers DO make sense for invading enemy systems where you have no colony, but NOT for colony or warp point defense....
If you have plenty of units in space slots, you do not need bases, but I have 27 warp points in my home space boundaries. With 5000/27 = 185 slots minus mines there are not enough to keep significant numbers of fighters on the map.