New Fleeing Rules

[Schatten Research Facility]

Yes.

What you are proposing is a gunboat that is able to effectively shoot down a fighter that is running away even with other snubs trying to stop it from doing so. Now imagine a single gunboat versus single fighter.
I certainly would not bother flying a ship that has less than tenth the armor and shield capacity if it can't even escape.

:/ Getting caught by a gunboat would involve flying within combat range of a gunboat which is something that a fighter can very easily avoid.

Remember, fighters and bombers have always had the option of avoiding gunboats to avoid engagements. Before the rule change though, they were forced to stay and fight or die (bluemsg or fleeing) if they decided to engage the gunboat, but now there's nothing keeping them from running at any time :/