This is because one TIE Defender only requires one "kill shot" to remove from the board, but two TIE Fighters requires two kill shots.

Isn't that actually an advantage though? Because even though they have the same amount of health, the Defender doesn't have the potential to lose half of it's firepower after it loses half it's health(as the two Fighters would if one of them was shot down).

It's a disadvantage defensively, for reasons MJ described, but it is an advantage offensively, as if you've killed one of a pair of smaller ships, it reduces firepower by roughly half, but the Defender retains full firepower with half (or more) of its hit points gone.

Example: you do 2-4 damage to a 1 hull TIE Fighter as you kill it. You still only do 1 hull of damage to remove the ship. Dead is dead. Then you need to kill the other TIE Fighter as well. However, if you do the same damage to a 3 hull/1 shield TIE Defender (already down 2 hit points like in the TIE Fighter example), it eats 100% of the damage. Having more hull and shields maximizes the offensive efficiency of the ships shooting at you.

Ah, I see. Because any overkill damage is lost. Gotcha.

This is because one TIE Defender only requires one "kill shot" to remove from the board, but two TIE Fighters requires two kill shots.

Isn't that actually an advantage though? Because even though they have the same amount of health, the Defender doesn't have the potential to lose half of it's firepower after it loses half it's health(as the two Fighters would if one of them was shot down).

It's a disadvantage defensively, for reasons MJ described, but it is an advantage offensively, as if you've killed one of a pair of smaller ships, it reduces firepower by roughly half, but the Defender retains full firepower with half (or more) of its hit points gone.

The latter is already accounted for in the jousting calculation by using a curve that is not exactly a square root of the [expected damage] * [expected durability].

For example, 3 attack is worth around 1.7x of 2 attack. And the TIE Defender has a durability of around 1.9-something relative to a TIE Fighter.

If you DIDN'T account for what you are describing, then the raw stat value would be worth 12* (1.7*1.9)^0.5 = 21.5. But it's actually worth about 23 points, for exactly the reason you describe.

Note: the TIE Defender's apparent efficiency should go down once I take stat-line based action economy into effect. I.e. 3 attack and 3 AGI is more likely to have focus available for offense or defense, but not both. A 1AGI B-wing however is happy to maximize its offense with focus since it will only roll an eyeball on defense 1:4 times. Updated numbers sometime after Worlds...

I wasn't speaking to your jousting calculations, specifically, just the general principal that hit points help preserve firepower in the example discussed.