The purpose of a feint is to draw a cautious opponent into attacking and thereby exposing a weakness you can capitalize on.
If someone is actively beating in your head, there's little point in a feint.
This just sort of underscores how futile it is to express a complete fighting strategy in a word or two.
The question is, are there concepts/strategies that can be used against a cautious opponent AND someone beating your head in. IMO yes there are. The differentiator between a cautious opponent and someone beating your head in is time ... beating your head in is the goal for most attackers, in one form or another, even cautious ones, they simply havnt got there yet.
Looking at my personal interpretation of the Tai Chi Methods Fighting approach ...
"To offbalance the opponent such that they must recover before being able to mount an offence, and in that moment applying a fight ending attack."This strategy could be used in grappling, striking, before contact, after contact, in multiple opponents, for weapons, in ring sports or street fights, during pre-emptive attacks etc ... it fits all modes, and all situations as an overarching strategy that is relatively uniquely Tai Chi Chuan. The presentation of the 'offbalance' part is where the majority of the Tai Chi method is focused, it is the purpose and goal of the much of the combat training, then we have methods of producing power capable to end a fight (Fajin etc)
"Offbalance such that they must recover before being able to mount an offence" could be, off-balance from contact point, feint, lead, throw to the ground, capture the gaze, Distract the mind, stick/adhering/connect/follow, etc ... it could be mental or physical offbalancing. For example, we could say a tactic like : asking the attacker a question, as the person considers the answer you KO, lock them etc would be an example of mental offbalancing. Something i personally used successfully time and again on the doors.
"Fight ending attack" could be any combination of striking, grappling, throwing, stabbing, slashing, bludgioning ... you get the idea.
With this in mind, it would be relatively easy to develop and assess your skills based on the above strategy. When you spar or do applications, the question you can ask of yourself is, 'Did i offbalance before i applied my attack?' if not, more training and tuition in how to offbalance is needed. etc etc A whole approach can be built out of the simply, or as some would have us believe, 'superficial' strategy.
We could drop down a level and talk about how the Tai Chi Method Specifically offbalances (using Yin & Yang, physics) or produces fight ending attacks (FaJin) but then we are into the hows, and not the whys and for another thread.
thanks.