Unless you get the ones in a CZ that jump in, and by random chance (which actually happens a lot for me :V) all go straight for you, all firing railguns and seekers and taking out your guns and canopy while you try to get away from the nasty sounds. Ever since I upgraded from a Vulture to a FAS I've had less of a problem getting my engines shot out and whatnot, but my canopy still shatters the moment someone sneezes on it...
Honestly though, in my experience I've just seen a lot of , both from my ship (FAS gimballing is broken as all hell, for instance) and from the AI... just more from the AI because they seem to have no issues with ammo, power distribution unless you snipe the plant, or from heat from what I personally have observed.
Your impression is not incorrect. As said above, AI has been using cheat since the beginning of the game and white knights will try to circumvent it in all aspects. But the fact remains, they cheat.