"Given the opportunity, devs will balance the fun out of a game."
Some people said kiting Conquest is no longer possible in 0.9 version of the game given that a lot has changed, such as speed hullmods being removed or nerfed, speed boosting skills nerfed, single ship skills nerfed and things like carriers buffed and Paragon having integrated range boost mod.
This was my first try at it in this games version, bit sloppy but you get the point.
It's possible, but it takes roughly 3 times longer. It's not harder, its just slower and more boring.