After a bit of testing with Converted Hangars I kind of see why Megas considers them indispensable. D-ships lose a lot of stats, but they have full OP, and most (or all?) D-mods do not affect fighters. D-ships also cost less to deploy. => CH naturally stacks with clunker fleet approach.
It's also quite a powerful hullmod, considering that AI is not very good against fighters. Normally I consider Enforcer to be the weakest DE, but when you add CH it finally becomes decent match for the others. Why? => With most OP of all DEs, it is cheapest for Enforcer. And having 2 Flaks easily counters enemy CH even if they also had it.
I find Sunders are quite effective in AI hands - as long as you are using a HIL/graviton loadout. Even without ITU/Optics it is effective enough (though of course they make it better).
I consider no-UI, no-ITU variants to be automatically unusable. Nearly same variant with ITU is almost guaranteed to slaughter them without a chance to fight back (same slow-ish speed, yet more range). With UI you could at least get a stalemate due to speed advantage (and charge in when enemy becomes vulnerable).
UI vs UI+ITU is also a better situation than none vs ITU - there is smaller approach window to be exploited which AI would often fail to exploit (it's not nearly as precise at range management as player).
Exception: Hyperion, since it's system allows to mostly ignore range and normal movement.
ITU, no-UI is also a kind of bet. If you can't get enough flux advantage during approach of faster and stronger enemy, you are done. Most notable case - being charged by Aurora (hard flux equipped).
- A Hammerhead needs to use all it's firepower under AAF in optimal manner or it's dead. Overall, it has easiest victory against Aurora amongst all DEs.
- Medusa can win if player controlled. But it's all about skimmer and finer piloting, and is not easy.
- Enforcer is dead unless it uses ridiculous variant like 4x Heavy Needlers, 1x Mauler to imitate Hammerhead. But such build is relatively useless outside this specific situation.
- Sunder is just dead - it's not effective enough against shield to repel Aurora and not fast enough to run.