Wait, I thought someone mentioned somewhere that particle accelerators were considered to inflict laser damage and thus affected by the %laser resist? No? Crap, in that case they need to be toned down as well. My main problem with those is that they basically hit/miss upon firing; there's no projectile travel time. I'm fine with plasmas, you can see them miss (even expert gunner pilots miss fairly often). Kinetics are just about right, but I think their gimped range also helps. I agree, weapon power overall just increases too much compared to shields/armor.

Homing on missiles is a factor but I made sure most of my modded missiles have low antijam rating, you can see enemies use AMS against them with great effect. Right now I'm not too worried about them. And, same, i also prioritise antimissile defense & shields.

I'd prefer shields to prevent recurring damage more rather than just absorb the bulk of the initial attack. Sure, it'll make enemies more annoying, but look at it from their point of view: our handful of pilots basically shoot down hundreds of them by the end of the game.

Plus you can always harvest exp on those weak pirates (I pity them...), go cache hunting, or shoot up warehouses, lol.