Megas makes a really good point about charging autopulses. The AI will try its best to save up charges but doesn't always succeed. I think it would be better as a player-piloted ship if you're using autopulses since you have the discretion of when to fire. Additionally, their damage potential is hugely reduced if you don't take Expanded Magazines and their range is subpar.
I have had the most success with a Paragon fit that has mostly empty weapon slots. I have 4 Tachyon Lances (I swapped 1 out for a Dorito weapon but lances are good if you don't have), 1 tactical laser, and 5 LR PD lasers in the rearmost slots. All the other OP goes to maxing flux and shield stats with all peritinent hullmod, as well as Reinforced Bulkheads (s modded) and Blast Doors to give it over 30,000 hull.
The tactical laser is only there so I can see what the ship is trying to shoot at, as it has the same range as the lances. I have found that when I fully fit small and medium weapons to every weapon slot on my Paragon, not only do the weapons never match the damage output of 4x tachyon lances, but I cannot max vents/caps and have to drop hull mods.
With Elite Energy Weapon Mastery for my officers, this fit can fire its tachyon lances indefinitely. And unlike a fully fit Paragon, when surrounded with many cruisers or smaller, this fit will not become overfluxed just by firing its own weapons. This makes it way tankier and able to continually fire its lances for an entire battle without needing to stop to vent. It also makes the Paragon way tankier, as saving 1000 flux/second means an extra 3000 damage per second you can tank with the paragon's 0.33 shield flux/damage stat. This was really important for me when fighting star fortresses and remnant battlestations!
Good luck with whatever you do, Paragon is the best capital ship by far so it's hard to go wrong.
Edit: this fit probably won't look super impressive against the sim paragon. But put a sim-fit Paragon vs. a big fleet or star fortress and compare it to one with just 4 lances and you'll see why the sim isn't a good way to compare!