Hiya,
I saw the post from Matt Scott that the "feature" was actually a bug that shouldn't occur in mission districts. He said they were going to adress the issue but I cannot help to feel sad by this as this was by far the best feature of the patch. I might even go to such an extent to say that this is one of the best features ever added to APB in post launch. Let me first start with why this feature should stay permanently.
1: It can be seen as a balancing feature that will bridge the gap between veteran players who have thousands of hours of game time and the newer players who haven't started to unlock stuff yet. An example of this could be a R255 player who got themselves killed and drop a weapon with a purple mod which requires R195 to use under normal circumstances, in this case players below that can pick up the weapon and fight on even terms.
In Matt Scott's post he said something about some other balancing feature which could come eventually but until we actually know what it is, weapon drops should stay.
2: Leading into my second point, weapon drops will probably promote sales of Armas weapons and Joker boxes weapons due to the ability to test them out before buying. (I've also requested a testing range in social which seemed to get positive feedback). This actually happened to me today, tried and tested the Showstopper Thunder and the VBR 'Huntress' and I liked it, now I will definitely get them for myself.
3: Important to note is that the weapon drop system actually replaces your equipped weapon unlike how it worked with Valentine weapons which simply added another primary to your load-out. This eliminates much of the abuse potential of switching weapons mid fight.
I've opened up polls on the matter seeing how Matt Scott only opened up polls on keeping it in FC. I'm also genuinely interested why some people seem to absolutely hate this feature so if you feel like it, please explain why you don't like the feature (or why you like it )
I hope this feature is here to stay and that Little Orbit reconsider their statement.
//Basih