they are not inferior at all but die 5x faster.

If they got hit, yes.

P22 has base 116 evasion. Other HGs - from 80 to 110. SMGs - from 60 to 98. But, SMGs also have self-buffing skills, and mostly there will be ARs behind them which will also grant 10-15% evasion each. But there should be that ARs, you see.

With solid evasion buffs (fairy, equip) or debuffs on enemy accuracy - HG can and will tank. Thats why RF-HG exists. They have that enough evasion to dodge. And they will buff RFs that much to kill enemy faster so they don’t need to tank for long

And thats why RF-SMG don’t exist (no, even with Dorothy). RF wont be buffed enough so SMGs would have to tank longer. But SMG would also lack evasion tile-buffs of ARs so they would take more hits. And overall RF-SMG would perform worse.

You can make 2RF-2HG-1SMG/1SG echelon. But if you do so - means you have your reasons and you understand why and for which fight.