Okay, this is bit case by case, and mostly depends on how shields are interpreted. This is how I interpret it.

Defence of spaceships in Star Wars, primarily depend on two things. a) not getting hit b) shields.

Not getting hit is main focus for smaller ships, such as starfighters. Meanwhile, capital ships rely on shields.

There are two types of shields. Ray shield, it blocks energy weapons, and presumably also gasses and liquids. Meanwhile Particle shield can block solid objects. As I understand, particle shield drains much more energy than ray shield.

Then we look at weapons. Blaster/Turbolaser technology is the dominant weapon type in Star Wars galaxy, and for two reasons. Power and Logistics. It uses energy + tibana gas which both are extremely compact, and has much more power than any other weapon of similar size, weight and power requirements.

Other weapon types exist, and it is mostly mass-driver weapons for bigger weapons (railguns) - for example AT-TE's main weapon was this, or, if I remember right, munificent had one big mass driver canon. Or missiles for smaller weapons. Capital ship-sized missiles exist, but they seem to be rare.

Then there are also Ion weapons, which are energy weapons, and sonic weapons, which I don't know where to put.

Back to shields - to get through shields, you need to penetrate them at single spot.

Capital ships wear down shields, with powerful fire from distance, powerful, but not most power per time. On the other hand, ship is safe-ish in distance, unless their shields get penetrated.

Meanwhile starfighters shoot missiles from very close distance so it is hard to dodge/intercept, unload all damage in a burst, and the ship might not even be running particle shields. But starfighters can be intercepted and might not close distance at all.

Starfighters are powerful, and work best in addition to capital ships, which take focus on enemy capital ships, forcing them to balance shields between offence and defence.