I generally regard the Perseus as an inferior Loki with some standoff capability; at close range 80 Tempests are enough to support primaries and I often have some left over at the end of a mission. The Loki has better shields, is slightly more maneoverable and faster (the powerful afterburners are not only an asset in a fight, they also let the Loki cover ground more quickly in spite of a slightly lower cruising speed). The differences in target profile and gun placements aren't huge - spread is amost identical, that the Perseus' guns are offset slightly to the bottom isn't a big deal once you get used to it.
I find that the Loki's speed - the edge gets bigger with aggressive energy management - more than offsets the lack of missiles in most interception missions.
Its failure is its impotence against capital ships: if I need to shoot off a few beams as well I'll grudgingly take a Perseus or Myrmidon despite not liking either ship very much.
You need to fly some real TvT and get good at it, honestly, it's where fighters and bombers real strengths are illuminated.
Loki are fine so long as one of two conditions are met;
You die a lot.
You get time to rearm.
If you're better than your opponent, neither happens in TvT.
At which point the 4 times greater missile capacity is GREATLY appreciated.
Loki's are considered Thoth killers in DFs, whilst Thoth are considered superior to /everything/ else when it comes to 'all on all'.
Whilst the Loki is one of the nimblest little buggers, that's all it is.
As soon as it runs outta tempest, it's a gnat, a fly you can ignore, until it gets bored enough to call in support - which you can blow up for bonus points to put your team even further ahead.
"Annoying but ineffectual" light fighters are always the last targets to die in a dogfight because they don't have the offensive capacity to be dangerous.
The ONLY modern (FS2 Era) fighter that breaks this trend thoroughly is the Perseus.
It's ONLY weakness
is the lack of maxim, and lights aren't really something you would throw at a cap ship anyway.
However - even without the maxim, a Perseus with two bays of tempest can disarm pretty much any cruiser or corvette class warship without calling for support.
It can do the destroyers too if you don't waste the tempests on turrets that die promptly to just primary fire.
In a TvT though, no, the choice of light fighters is clear, if there were a light which had usable 4 port gunbanks the conclusion would be slightly different.
Personal taste is fine but saying 80 tempests is 'adequate' makes me question what kind of situation you deem it adequate for.
Anything under 200 tempests on a ship is completely inadvisable for a proper squadwar unless you're flying a missile boat, and if you are, you're going to be relying on more skilled team mates to keep you alive and your opponents distracted so your ..missiles, can be useful anyway.
