Big time strategy game player here, for that "Survive for 6 turns" combat mission, I wish there was a Jump Out button after the sixth turn. It gives the player the option to stay and fight, and potentially win. Something like Project Wingman's Mission 6, where you're engaged by a squadron of enemy ace pilots, and you're told to retreat. Or, you don't. It's a tough as nails fight, and the rest of your allies retreats, the screen even says [ENGAGEMENT NOT ADVISED]. When you manage to best the enemy ace squadron, everyone is shocked.
I bring this up because I managed to reduce the enemy fleet to four scattered Corvettes, with no fleet losses on my end, and I was just about to wolfpack my fighters and corvettes together to defeat them in detail when the mission force ended me.
And then the plot immediately afterwords happened and that made it feel like all my careful planning and maneuvering was for nothing. Pretty shitty feeling, because I actually beat the enemy fleet myself, and then plot said I didn't do shit actually.