I've witnessed NPCs running out of chaff. But yeah, chaff is annoying. Could always try bringing some seeker missiles. Chaff doesn't affect it's lock-on, and you can target the chaff launcher itself to remove it from the enemy ship
Not really an option with big lumbering corvettes/anaconda's. You'll just not hit anything and it'll take as long or longer.
Are you serious?
Running ONLY fixed Pulse Lasers on an Anaconda literally wrecks anything. Especially against larger ships. If you're bad@aim then run your mediums as gimballed.
The corvette at least is probably nimble enough to get away with an all-fixed loadout, at least after it's been A-rated and especially after it's been engineered.
Though arguably, "go fixed or go home" as a design philosophy does create problems with physics. At some point you've got to admit you're not sitting in a P-51 anymore...
...any ship above the size of an FDL can easily be hit also while chaffing, when you are close enough.