Rippers are useful. They move faster, and are easier to hit with than nukes.
Mindless spamming of nukes is easily dealt with by finding the culprit and spamming CDs at them. They stop when they realise every mine they drop explodes as soon as they drop it.
A light fighter's main purpose (as I see it) is nuke placement and detonation. Although to be fair, I tend not to fly LF's due to the fact they make me dizzy. Seriously. I start to feel sick. Q_Q