In the last thirties some naval aircraft as Blackburn Skua or Lioret-Nieuport 411 were projected to melt the roles of dive-bomber and fighter, the results were usually fairly good dive bombers and mediocre , too heavy fighters.
The aim of the original proget was not anyway a true "air superiority fighter", their main opponents would have been in original hypothesis those slow reconeissance flying boats of the class of CANT Z501 , SM 55 or Dornier Do-18 which could spot the carrier and her escort ships .... ( the first air victory of Fleet air arm was just a Do-18 shot down by a Skua), or the slow pre-war bombers as Savoia Marchetti SM-81 or the French bombers.
The possible opponent naval fighters , usually older biplanes in 1936-38, were not considered a plausible threat .
The first low-wing monoplanes with retractable undercarriage were quite good as a rule for the last 30s , ex Breda Ba-65 in Spanish civil war but none of them was up -to date when opposed to the new generation aircrafts in 1940.
As a paradox, Dauntless was originally projected as a pure dive bomber but it showed good performances ,in particular handling , when employed in air-to-air fighting.