^ In actuality, for 0.7 fighters it was better to have less carriers as carriers would take up valuable DP needed to deploy fighters. And yeah, in 0.7 fighters = ships so everything you do with ships you did with fighters, like capturing objectives and soaking up your 30 ship limit, but honestly, 0.7 fighters were kinda not great.
Firstly, though this is more a fault of the skill system then fighters, skills were mega OP in 0.7. There were also no fighter skills in 0.7 so fighters did not scale at all in 0.7. This made fighters weaker then warships in the long run.
Secondly, it really simplified carrier usage. Right now, fighters are tied to carriers, and carriers need to be within a certain range in order to deploy the fighters. Carriers also need to balance out Replacement Rate with trying to perform whatever task they're designed for in exchange for fighters being unlimited now. In 0.7 carrier usage revolved around keeping a certain ratio of hanger bays to fighter wings and keeping them in some god forsaken corner as far away from any fighting there was. Also, since carriers did not interact with fighters in any way save for the closest carrier automatically rebuilding new fighters as needed for losses or resupplying bombers.
Thirdly, fighters had a much larger critical mass issue, especially since you spent your DP on fighters as opposed to ships that carried them. Since they didn't scale as above, if you didn't have enough fighters then they were a hindrance as the DP could've been spent on things more useful; however, if you made most of your fighting forces as fighters, then they would run over the enemy forces with minimal input from the player like a more extreme version of Pilums. Especially, because not having engagement ranges made it much easier to ball up all the fighters together, and once they were balled up they generally stayed balled up.
Also, carrier fleets were extremely annoying to deal with. Because a carrier could resupply any and all fighters that had the side effect of making it so that when the enemy, or yourself, retreat. So long as a single carrier lived, every fighter wing would also survive. There were more than a few times that I couldn't pursue enemy fleets with my frigate force because every fighter wing from the enemy was available because a single Heron managed to barely get away. They wouldn't have any replacements, but fighters have generally been bad news for frigates especially when massed.
I mean, while it is true you were able to rally them and move them around via CP in the tac map, I think that all the issues with fighters were handily replaced. While balling up fighters or bombers for a run could be effective, it would also be a drain on your CP in combat, moreso to make it more effective. In turn with the current system, its been encouraged for bombers and fighters to coordinate much more effectively. Try using a longbow with daggers and see how they manage to time their run so that the sabots hit just a moment before the atropos do on their runs.