I find that LRPD is superior in nearly all ways to Tactical Lasers for PD, unless the player really needs 1000 vs 800 range. On paper Tactical Lasers have higher DPS: in practice they do not. Their poor target tracking and low "extend" speed mean that they spend most of their time not even firing. This is with IPDAI and Turret Gyros on ships like an Eagle, with no advanced optics to lower their turret speed. They are better at killing fighters when NOT using IPDAI, as they ignore missiles and flares by default and go for fighters. But as a PD grid, they are inferior.
With Advanced Turret Gyros, Tactical Laser PD is very good. Even better, Tactical Lasers can passthrough missiles and can stuff some missile spam that other beam PD cannot (do as well) due to lack of passthrough. (Okay, it was mentioned they do not fire. I have not experienced that much if at all ever since Turret Gyros upgraded from +50% to +75%. But, I have had PD beams re-firing when I had something targeted, and it is more of a problem with slower extending beams.)
That said, not all ships or loadouts can spare the flux or the OP to afford all of that. For those that can, IPDAI tac lasers are very good.
I generally do not use Tactical Lasers for PD on Falcon/Eagle because they have enough trouble staying flux neutral with their main guns, and they do not have a lot of OP for luxuries. I tend to use either LR PD or Burst PD on them. On the other hand, I have considered IPDAI a few times when I use Tactical Lasers instead of Graviton Beams in the medium mounts. (If I cannot stack enough gravitons for anti-shield, why use them when tactical laser can do the other jobs just as well?)
LR PD is good as budget tac lasers. I consider LR PD more of a general-purpose weapon.
P.S. I guess Ordnance Expert 1 could help speeding up shot/extend speed of Tactical Lasers. Also, I wonder if targeting something interferes with PD re-targeting at times. Player can get around that, but that will not help AI since it is unaware of that interaction.