I see.
We are talking about two different periods on time. You are taking the far (maybe not as far as I think) future, while I'm talking about the near future and the present.
As for space combat in realistic terms, you are getting into the realm of just how fast can you be going and still accurately target an opponent? How far away can you effectively target and opponent? There may be no horizon, but there is a limit to how far away one can train a weapons accurately against a moving target. How far that is will be a question for military planners and designers.
The "fighter" may still exist in some form or another, if only because of man's desired for personal glory or to be alone with the stars. However they may be reduced to the purpose of manned scout and may be larger than what we would consider a fighter. Just one of many craft on the larger warship that can be detacted when needed. At that point it is either a means for recon in areas your sensors can't function (around rocks, planetary horizons, or in strong electromagnetic fields perhaps), or as a means to gain a numerical advantage over an enemy and perhaps gain some form of tactical advantage by having more mobile weapons coming in from different vectors on the target vessel. That again assumes that a weapon system on a smaller vessel can be used against a larger one to some effect.
Smaller is a relative term. A "figher" that happens to be 50 meters long compared to the warship that is 5,000 meters long, is still a "fighter" if termed as such by the people of the day. We might consider it as something else, but relative size and purpose will denote that day and ages naming conventions.
Of course that is if there is ever such a need for any kind of space warships.
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