The probably biggest argument against the Goldfish was, and I quote a few too many people to name, "Why disable, when you can just kill them instead?" #DoubleJunkers (Ducks), #DoublePyra (Ryders) #SpirePyra (Thralls, but I admit, I am sure they flew other stuff too, but as far as I am aware, this was their primary ship combination back at that time; And their Pyra/Blenderfish failed against the Mandarian's double Junker). So the Goldfish was essentially thought to be quite useless.
Old thread is old, but eh still on the front page and I'm bored at class so I would like to mention something in relation to what Dementio says here.
Back in le ole days of Gat/Flak patches and even in the earlier-mid Gat/Mortar metas, the Heavy carronade was an amazingly powerful gun. The problem with most people was that they used the gun primarily just to pop balloons.
Being a big advocate for the thing back then (you can ask Eric kek) I did a lot of calculations on it and with some good crew coordination (which back then I also had), this weapon with 450-500m range could do a hilarious, almost 700-armor damage burst faster than a Gatling (Buffed with Heavy/Loch alternation to keep maximum DPM). Most of the time, especially if you got the jump on someone, shooting the balloon would be a ridiculous mistake. Old Blender was an armor stripper and insta-weapon disabler, popping the balloon was in all terms, a secondary function and only to be preferred if you're trying to stall someone in an 1v1 waiting for your ally or preventing them from getting away.
when you mention the Thralls Pyra/Blend losing to the Mandarins I assume you're talking about the Sky-League, I was on Frogger's ship during that and they did the same mistake of focusing the balloon. There was trouble dealing with it at first, but a quick realisation that you can just bring drogue and forget about the balloon while you finish em instantly aleviated that (especially on a ship where the captain can fix the balloon without even moving). If they had focused the armor from the get go there would be no hope of repairing it. With proper excecution you can instantly burst it before the engi can even get a single mallet hit on it.
Anyway, sorry for the necro I guess? If a front page thread is considered necro anyway.