Oh, how I laugh

Each defending ship gets at least one shot, even if it is destroyed with the attackers first shot.
So that first round can be a bear; even if the attacker has overwhelming force it may lose a ship or two.

I'm sure their faces are just fine, because nothing but weapons is still more economically efficent than defenses in the majority of cases.

I slapped some defenses on my first post-patch game, but all in all its not worth it except in the first two years of the game. So its nothing but teeth for me. And why would I? While defenes have become better, the AI has continued to improve it's weapon selection. Why build defenses when I know my next enemy will be able to mostly ignore them?

Exactly so defences on ships is better financial sense. I am currently late game with ships 40% weapons 60% defence ratio and I hardly ever loose a ship against some prety nasty enemies.