Thats correct. I have defense stations that are nothing more than hangers, maintenance and missile defense. They are armored heavily to take point blank missile shots. I have additional stations that sit back at range and provide either beam defense up close, or missiles at range.
The way the AI selects targets right now, they enemy usually goes for the stations first, letting the fighters close. Turrets tend the be the biggest issue. Short range lasers/mesons/Gauss tend to open up on the fighters as they have no other targets, assuming there are no missiles inbound.
The big advantage is that the fighters can sit in their stations for very long periods of time and launch instantly. I can also crank out a couple a month due to the low build points required, making them pretty cost efficient.
They are not perfect, but for that specific role of jump point defense, they do a good job and are cheap.
A few stations, some fighters and a chunk of mines, and I can pretty much close down a warp point to squadron transits.