It takes single Afflictor or Harbinger. Time? Well, in the worst case scenario its a double tap per frigate. 10 sec.
Even if i use phase ships, not everyone uses them.
It is not about the phase ships. It is about the game already having the solution to the ECM problem. And I can provide several other apart from the Afflictor. Mostly because I'm not fixed on the idea of playing the game in a predetermined way.
It's about ok going to deploy my ship and go kill all the enemy frigates to not make my fleet hands cut-off, just the same as all previous battles. It is a problem, no actual battle-opening alternatives.
First of all you have two pre-battle choices:
1) To win the ECM war.
2) Not to win ECM war.
If you are to pick option 1) you will not have any problems.
However you decided to pick option 2).
OK.
Now you have other choices:
1) To suffer from your decision.
2) To not suffer.
Option 2) divides into another two.
1) You destroy opponent's ECM capabilities.
2) You make them irrelevant.
Afflictor is only a suboption of the suboption "personally hunt enemy frigates down". While on the other have a SO fleet with its ubiquitous "you guys are allowed to shoot beyond 450 su?"
And there is a lot of stuff between these two things.