I'd rather see it get a higher bloom per shot but keep the range. So if you want to hit at range you'll have to control it more. Or extra recoil would be better.
Global Agenda 2 was in the works. Eventually over time it got turned in to Paladins.
Source: Hirez Todd saying it directly to my face and showing early alpha footage of GA2.
He also went on about how Tribes was earning them nothing and Smite was keeping the Tribes servers up.
Themes are straight up pay to win though.
If you have a good theme you want it to be heard and therefore play better. Having a good theme directly correlates to playing better.
I miss the old objective missions in baylame. Especially the one with a billion medium items that each team would have to bring back to base.
The real issue here though is that it is just not a good map. It was not designed for fight club from the ground up.