I support that fighters are awesome to no end.
For that reason i Generally use a Sova carrier as my first capital ship. Since, right off the bat, it can spawn two fighter squads and, with some leveling up, can hold up to 7. Combine that with its ability that can beef up its squadrons and its turret drones it can launch with another ability and you have a fearsome capital ship to use against those little neutral fleets that occupy planets early on in the game.
Carriers are also really nasty to have in mass along with a strong fleet. Because they send 2 squads each(if you have say, 20 to 30 carriers or more, the math says this equals mucho damage) AND, they stay just outside the gravity well at all times and let the fighters/bombers do all of the dirty work, so even if a few bombers/fighters die, they are swiftly replaced because its home carrier is still distanced from the battlefield. The fact that the carriers themselves stay far from the battle also means they are protected by your main fleet from enemy ships. Which means that they can effectively survive a battle unscathed(unless you lose of course). That extra survivability make them very useful since it gives you an extra layer of fleets to occupy a newly captured front while you develop it and is also a good financial advantage since you wont be spending as much money replacing your carriers, assuming you win your battles.
So yeah, combining a healthy ammount of ships that can spawn fighter/bomber squadrons along with a main fleet of mixed ships can be pretty deadly.
