It is not necessary to win dogfights for these designs (I only remember Arado-196 from BB Tirpitz dogfighting tracking planes from Victorious in 1942 but there are more cases in the Pacific, I believe) but they should be able to cover a sizable area, detect track ships and provide help for firecontroll in some cases (radioing the splashes). Put Yourself in a situation having a cruiser designed and deciding which board plane should be used (neglect nationalities for the moment).