as for massive bomber fleets: on my last medium map i had trashed around 4 or so siege fleets already (with about 10-15 siege frigates in each), when suddenly a fleet of ~40 siege frigates (from the same AI) launched for me. i mean, seriously, why does the AI sometimes build nothing else? is it a specific AI personality that thinks "hey ill just siege him into oblivion"?
i agree with most, that its really annoying to chase them back and forth, and always just scraping a few off every phase jump, BUT, as much as it annoys me, obviously it works as intended, i mean, is there a better tactic than annoy your opponent to keep him occupied while you can do what you want? so as much as i hate it, i have to admit that it works :/
AND, since the patch it is really not much of a problem to transform a large siege fleet to scrap metal. just change most of your hangars (if not all) to fighters, and build 3 or 4 on your frontline planets, problem solved.