It's amazing what a difference that thicker hull makes when you're flying an unshielded coffin with wings. I probably should have loaded in some torpedoes, because those are essential when dogfighting as a bomber. On the other hand, firing missiles at enemy starfighters head-on is pointless, because they'll simply target them and destroy them, then do the same to you. Z-95s aren't that much more maneuverable than TIE Bombers, but X-Wings would have been problematic, and A-Wings would have been extremely challenging.

The TIE Bomber's laser configuration in XwA is a little different than this series' prequels, but it's probably more screen-accurate. Personally, I would never bring a bomber to a dogfight, but they're certainly not helpless if they find themselves in that situation.

I'd also like to mention that one of the reasons I like XwA so much is that it's very possible to play in 3rd person mode. It's certainly not always ideal, and some of the ships are too big to make it very practical, but for me it's just as easy to aim at the center of my ship's cockpit than it is to aim at a HUD reticle.