But during the events of Delenda Est, while the Federation lost only 3 Frigs, 2 Cruisers and 1 AWACS and say 2~3 wings. The GTVA lost a hell lotta fighters (maybe 5~6 squadrons) 4 Corvettes, 3 Cruisers. That totals to a lot of ships! just to waste a few frigs?
You don't know that. As said multiple times already, there were engagements all over the system. The Federation could have lost many other assets somewhere else in addition to the loss of the Wargods.
The GTVA lost many ships and fighters ? They don't care, they eliminated the only UEF task force that, in 18 months, managed the feat of striking back and do any significant sort of damage to the Tev war machine. The result of the engagement might be even militarily-wise, the Tevs scored a major point in term of morale and, after 18 months of war, that is worth as much as a whole destroyer battlegroup.
EDIT: not to mention that we don't know what happened to the disabled warships of the Carthage battlegroup. Steele could have prepared contingencies for that event and kept ships in reserve to rescue them.
I feel that the Imperieuse was waiting for the Destroyers to show up, but decided to go for the kill anyways..
Excepted that the Toutatis
did show up, it was even engaged and significantly damaged by elements of Serkr team. I'm pretty sure the Carthage engagement was a higher priority because, instead of killing a destroyer, it could there
save a destroyer
and deal a major blow to the UEF morale by wiping out their prized taskforce.
This is Steele we're talking about here. He's not the kind of man that only consider the purely military aspects of a war. With the Imperieuse surprise, he clearly demonstrated his superior tactical skills. I don't think the UEF morale has ever been lower than at that point.