Carriers are just great because fighters dominate in 0.8.x, or at least are fast enough to outrun cowardly AI ships. Definitely need Fighter Doctrine 3 to make fighters a bit more tough and liberal use of Expended Deck Crew on all proper carriers. Seriously, Expended Deck Crew is as important to carriers as ITU is to direct combatants. (In case of Legion and Odyssey, they need both of those hull mods since they can do both! Legion, very effectively; Odyssey, not so much.)
Gryphon is weak. It is a flimsy ship with destroyer stats in a cruiser chassis just for missiles. It is too flimsy to try to brawl with torpedoes or hammers. When I tried using AI Gryphon in a fleet, it is often the first to die; and it was eventually removed from the fleet due to dying too much. (I suspect AI tries to use Gryphon as a conventional ship when it should pilot it like a carrier.) If you want weapons that function as missiles, use carriers instead. Fighters are better missiles than missiles, and the AI seems to know how to use carriers better.