Taranis with plate is majorfail, and taranis without a Damage control is evenmorefail.
The only inty that can survive with a plate is a claw. But I don't recommend it. Then again I don't recommend minnie inties for anything besides suicide tackling.
Also, yes these are both from numbers and experience. Damage is little more than a combination of range, damage mod/ROF, and tracking. A pulsader that has more range, more DPS, and better tracking than an arty claw will rape you sideways every time, no questions asked. Arties don't have good enough tracking, range or DPS at frigate level to be competitive. Autocannons don't have the range, shooting at optimal + falloff means you do 38.5% of your paper DPS, tracking independent. Why do ~50 DPS at 7-8km when you could do 100 DPS at 17km? There's no reason to ever fly a claw over a crusader.