Autopulse is decent, but it cannot blast things from across the map. Tachyon Lance can. Station has lots of lances, and if my fleet is a bunch of ballistic bruisers, then those lances will pierce shields after my ships shoot up the enemy fleet. Lances were tearing the enemy fleet during the brief time I had lances and not the high-tech pack. Once I got high-tech pack, station refused to use anything aside from autopulse, even though lance was prioritized and none of the other weapons were.
If I want lances on my station, then I want lances on the station, not autopulse. Currently, the only way to do this is not learn the high-tech pack, which hurts too much.