Think I might as well add the historical perspective to this post.

Trust us, we definitely wanted the Xwings to be stronger against TIE fighters than they are.  We've tried quite a few tricks in our books to get them to a) survive against TIE fighters and b) still maintain that X-wing aircraft feel.  Unfortunately the big limiter is actually the engine rather than anything we can do.  The TIE fighters, due to their small size, are very very hard to hit at an angle due to lag issues.  The big wide Xwing, meanwhile, is very easy to hit.  As such even making them equal in terms of speed and maneuverability the xwing usually came out worse because it could be hit where the TIE couldn't most of the time.

And indeed we can only make it so maneuverable before it stops behaving how an X-wing should.  Many games-if not the movies- have demonstrated how an X-wing flies, and pushing beyond that was a de facto impossibility. 

So, with these limitations in place we became somewhat trapped in what we can do.  To mitigate these issues we've pumped up the X-wing in all other areas.  Its blasters pump out twice the firepower of the TIE fighters.  They also don't lose damage over distance unlike the TIEs.  Add onto this that the Xwings have 3-4 times the average TIE's hitpoints and you have a really good long-range platform.  If you can get a TIE to engage at long range you can weather a few hits from him whilst simultaneously swatting him out of the sky.

To "cheat" a little on the maneuverability we have kept a boost on it to allow for some limited super-turning abilities.  We recommend using it whenever possible.  Also, to make the craft more than an attempted TIE equivilent we added the torpedo launcher.  This makes the X-wing surprisingly valuable on taloraan, where fighter torpedo strikes are the bane of the capital ships.  Every time I'm in a lancer I dread the sight of X-wings in the distance, because their torpedo hits mean nothing but pain.

We attempted several shield configurations (player controlled and automatic) but crashing problems, control limitations, and a basic lack of time have prevented any decent implimentations at this time.  Maybe in the future.  In the meanwhile yeah, the X-wing is not the legend that the movies and games before ours have made it out to be.  Instead it's just another tool in the Rebel arsenal.  You can get a lot out of it, and if used right can be deadly to many different things, but it'll take work and skill to do so.  We'd love to make it better, the trick is just figuring out how.  My recommendations are to use its torpedoes when possible against capships, try to sucker TIEs into long range fights, and fly in pairs and keep them high in the sky.

Fear the Woodzilla