I just want to point out before I run to work that PSA is the Gundarium/Luna Titanium of the 21st century, and it has been explicitly stated that while kinetic weapons - even Gundam railguns - do jack shit to PSA, beams can disrupt PSA and blast through.
It's really just an excuse to make beam sabers viable in SEED. In the original Gundam, Minovsky Particles screwed up radar and heat sensors, so people HAD to close to visual range to fight.
N-jammer interferance, now that I think about it some more, may or may not interefere with the guidance packages of the missiles Ozma was packing, unless, as is always assumed, micromissiles are heatseekers (mostly because IR seeker heads are smaller than SARH or active radar seeekers). THough there is the fold induction transmission system.
In an atmospheric fight VFs have the advantage; on the other hand however they can't take as much punishment as Gundam.
But IMO the best part of Macross is just the fact that you don't need to be an Ace to make a difference.
Though it can't hurt; that's how Max snagged Millia afterall.
As for the UN Spacy still using kinetic weapons, I'm of the opinion that it's because they can't make a rapidfire laser gun yet that's practical, and gatlings still have higher rates of fire compared to NUNS beam weapons.