Would a Federation warship like the Defiant out gun a Star Wars Star Destroyer? Who has a bigger armada? Who has the tactical advantage? Don’t forget that The Federation includes the Klingons, who love warfare and have fast, agile, heavily armed ships, with cloaking devices, and the Vulcans with superior logic and tactical planning.
Thats good context, but i think “standard” phaser vs “standard” lightsaber is still going to be a weak show for the lightsaber.
I cant think of any door melting feats for phasers, but they are commonly used to heat up rocks during cave ins, and are shown to heat room temperature stone to red hot in a couple of seconds, likely raising the temps 1000f in that time frame.
I know those were special super dense blast doors, but I still think the phaser seems to have a much higher energy output.
Sustain is likely a winning category for the saber, but if the power output discrepancy is on the order of 100 or 1000x, that’s still not really a win.