Have you tried the aChief? I mothballed my long time FAS companion for one.
Opssss.... I forgot the chief... I mean, yeah, I now fly mine very often and I like it in action.
With better lateral/verticals thrusters means it's more durable than FAS in wing fights, assuming the opponents have many projectile weapons.
Speed is a downside but no big deal since it's only something like 20m/s.
For me, the biggest difference between FAS and chief are the yaw, since I am a heavy PA user. Aiming PAs on FAS are simply sooooo smooth, but you can definitely feel the difference when you are in the chief. It's feels somewhere between FAS and FDL, you have to rely on thrusters more than FAS, but not as much as FDL, when it comes to aiming.
I know how you feel, one of my friends who loves FAS said he didn't like chief at all, too, and it took me a few weeks to make it effective in fights.