One of the beauties of running a stealth class is the versatility and potential strategy it affords u in combat. Generally speaking, the operative scoundrel kit isn't designed to be in the thick of it, fighting enemies head on, it's much more effective as a hit and run skirmisher and harraser. So yes, scanning the battle beforehand and picking out the weak links in the enemy team is a great strategy. If you see an ally working on an opponent but can't quite finish them, your surprise attack can be enough to tip the balance. That being said, lethality/ruffian is much better suited to team fights that concealment/scrapper since u can sustain aoe pressure on the enemy. So often it will be up to your judgement in the moment. But more often than not, you will make a bigger difference singling out a kill target and focusing on them.

I love both classes a lot but Scoundrel is just a little more enjoyable in terms of animations, personally (Big fan of the gun slinging, bare-knucle boxing, cowboy class fantasy they're going for). The biggest things that put me off the operative are shooting a rifle in close range (and the fact that u use a pistol throughout the story but can never use or customize it), and the healing probes having a very questionable animation where they constantly float around u and vomit green healing stuff on u, as opposed to the scoundrel version where a probe appears, injects some healing stuff, and quickly goes away (much easier on the eyes). That being said they are both awesome classes and you really can't go wrong with either.

I guess I'm in the minority that really enjoys all the punching. I'm a big boxing and MMA fan so having a class that feels like a gun slinging, bare knuckle boxing cowboy is pretty awesome to me. And in terms of realism, there's a point in one of the Eternal Empire expacs where it's implied u get some sort of power boost and so that's how I rationalize a smuggler being able to box with a Sith. Honestly theres times where the operative using a long blaster rifle at point blank range annoys me more, especially cuz ur holding it one hand half the time time while ur knifing away. I want operatives to have access to pistols more than I want scoundrels to get knives.

The Guitar Man by Cake I try to imagine "The Guitar Man" being a metaphor for my scoundrel :]