It cannot be avoided on every ship.
I don't think a Pyramidion would be able to out hydro or out kero a Squid or Goldfish, escpecially when kero/moonshine is used to move backwards, it will just be half as fast. It could possibly evade a Junker. A gat/mortar Pyra has then to break through the balloon, which means it is not going to kill anytime soon.
Moving forward to expose the engines is rarely an option.
Same for Galleons, it doesn't have many options and more often than not even phoenix claw is enough for that ship.
Spires probably have to fallback to the same phoenix claw option, especially with their glass cannon-like physique. If it manages to escape through hydro or chute, it will very likely still be outmanouvered the second the enemy gets on the same altitude, before escaping itself.
I see Hydrogen and chute vent more as a defensive, escape tool than as an offensive one. Only Gat/Mortar ships really profit from hydrogen to get an early height advantage, if used first.
Kerosene and Moonshine during combat is either range control or used to get the ship's own mass to do any damage or to use the mass to move another mass into a more favourable position.
Phoenix claw during combat enables you to keep your guns in arc against ships that are more manouverable than yours.
As the enemy ship uses hydrogen to escape, you will probably use hydrogen as well to get gun arcs back so you can continue killing.
If the enemy is too fast with kero/moonshine, you will probably use either tool to get back in range.
If the enemy uses a more manonuverable ship against yours, you use tools to compensate for the lack of manouverbility, how else do you win?
I do believe, if this wasn't the case, Squids and Junkers will have a tendency to always win against Pyramidions, Galleons and Spires in close range engagement. As it is now, less manouverable ships have a chance to fight back, some have it easier than others.