What's your opinion on the dominator? I can see your opinion on non-capitals for proper battle, but that is the biggest big-gun cruiser available.
Too slow, never reaches the enemy, gets surrounded by frigates and fighters and dies. Weapons are pretty good for fire support especially if you load it up for long range, but it's overpriced for what little it actually accomplishes.
The main issue is it's absolutely incapable of killing anything solo due to its speed. Enemies will either dance in and out of range forcing it to waste time forever, or it will engage something it can't beat like a capital ship or larger fleet and just get utterly destroyed. It's an AI only ship that the AI can't use effectively.
If speed didn't matter I'd just run 5 paragons. They have the best firepower and best defenses of any ship, no question (4x front facing large slots, flux for days and nearly unbreakable shields). I'm pretty sure you already know that doesn't work. You get 2 dominators plus a frigate for the cost of a Paragon, but gain nothing. They have the same or less firepower, the same or less speed, and WAY less defense. So if the Paragon is already insufficient, the Dominators will be much worse.