As the title says, if CIG continue with the development idea of fighters always having some effective role against other ships, there will never be anything Viable but fighters. At the end of the day, the large or even capital ships are sitting ducks, as a small group of fighters simply destroy the outer components such as PDCs, Turrets, Shield Emitters, Thrusters, etc... while a single interdicter stops them from ever escaping. Armor isn't going to change that in any implementation they come up with, at most it might require the fighter blob to bring a dedicated armor piercer. Unless this changes, it won't matter if that Polaris is solo or has a full crew. They lost before the fight began because they didn't pick Fighter horde.