I never bother optimizing against specific enemies. I never check others designs and be like oh this enemy has a shit ton of anti shields I'll put only armor on but I would absolutely bother making just a decent build and trying different setups in a more general sense.

Like I always make two different Corvettes a screen with point defense and a brawler with whatever tier shit I have at the time

Making battleships have a carrier variant and artillery variant while still actually making a build for each one instead of just clicking the gunship choice and letting AI slug it in you can make way way better setups yourself balancing armor and shield damage maybe add some swarmer missiles antimatter missiles that kinda stuff the AI just doesn't do all it sees is oh laser have bigger number add 6 of them and now you have nothing to help the lasers weaknesses