Advent pay more for that extra squadron. I don't have the exact numbers, I'm on the road, but just wanted to point out they aren't free.
Yes, their Hangars and Aeria Drone Hosts are more expensive and take up ~1.5x the fleet/tactical points of the others, but if I remember correctly, the net cost per squadron is less than the others. Not by too much though.
So the slightly weaker but slightly cheaper Advent squads equal out with the slightly more powerful Vasari squadrons. The TEC squads still suck.
I suppose this means the primary role of heavy crusiers is to tank the damage, not dish it out, eh?
LFs are quicker than HCs and also have the AM abilities. I would admit, Vasari's AM ability is<Advent<TEC, but it is good. Also, the damage multipliers are more in LFs favor. Bombers tear HCs to sheds.
And yeah, to some extent, HCs are great meat shields, especially the Vasari with the reintegration. What is truely fantastic about the Vasari LFs is that they get the reintegration ability as well. Vasari have undeniably the meatiest LF in the game.
[EDIT] I just looked it up (and modified these numbers for v1.1). Bombers do 100% damage to HCs, Fighters do 50% damage to HCs. Bombers and fighters do 50% damage to LFs. HCs and LFs to 125% damage to carriers.
Speed of LFs are 800 and acceleration is 200. Speed of HCs are 600 and acceleration is 125. The carrier is 500 and 100.
The Ravastra Skirmisher by itself is not tough enough to make up for it's premium pricing vs. the Cobalt and Disciple. After Reintegration is researched(which can be counted as 480 Hull for the Skirm and 720 Hull for the Enforcer), it's so much tougher that it's the most cost effective meatshield as far as LFs are concerned(same thing counts for the Enforcer vs. other HCs).
But still, the Skirmisher and Enforcer both deal poor amounts of DPS for their prices. The TEC ain't much better at this, but the Advent ships are great at DPS/price ratios.