I just opened up weapon.csv and made the patch changes to HIEs and Tach Lances myself, then did some quick rounds in the simulator and vs whatever hostile fleets I could find on short notice. It seems like an all-beam Paragon is now viable. It even works vs simulator Paragons even though you can't out-damage their flux dissipation because they toggle Fortress Shield on for absolutely no reason. I hope that the changes to how the AI handles Fortress Shield fixes that. It might not work vs Odysseys because they don't have Fortress Shield, but there's no Odyssey in the simulator to test against.