It doesn’t exist just to mess with everyone, it exists because the developers don’t want all the noobs (aka most players) getting crushed by the fraction of the community which actually flanks, mind games, snap shots, is able to quickly react, etc. etc.
Adding aimpunch makes it so a bad player, so long as they shoot you first, will have a pretty good chance at scoring a kill unless they are abnormally garbage.
It’s a mechanic whose purpose is simply to add a level of certainty to netting kills in most situations so long as you hit first and don’t completely lose aim of your target.
If you begin to shoot someone first, and they almost instantly react and aim better than you, shouldn’t they be rewarded with the kill? Why should there be an explicit, artifical emphasis on the importance of hitting someone first (i.e. aimpunch)? Being able to create situations where you hit your enemy before they hit you is only one of many skills, but adding such a mechanic makes it have a larger impact than other skills.
Don’t get me wrong, I know skill has a larger impact in this game than most shooters out today (at least imo), which is the main reason it’s so fun compared to most shooters. The point is that the main impact of aimpunch is the artificial boosting of importance of one very narrow skill and by comparison the reduction of importance of every other skill, particularly mechanical skills.
Players should be rewarded for doing well, which isn’t exclusively indicated by who shot who first. If you take time to learn the game, play consistently and improve at it, it only makes sense that you should do better than someone who hasn’t taken the time or improved.
