Hmm.
Another thing that I feel jetpacks diminished was the player cohesion; a bunch of people in the lobby having impromptu moments of running into each other and hanging out. Sometimes you’re around a new player/strangers and they just take off and are gone, then you check the scoreboard and they’re at “the great outdoors.” Great, that could be literally anywhere, most likely the God damn sky that is approximately +90% of the map. Seems like these moments only occur between the subway exit to the fountain.
On that topic, a long time ago, when the game was in a much different state, I REALLY wanted there to be golf carts, or at least some way to chauffeur a party around. I even drew a diagram to demonstrate my frustrations with moving as a group to another location:
Back in the lobby 1 Gmod Tower days, the map was almost all interior rooms and halls so a jetpack never broke much in terms of navigation and space. I think the state of jetpacks are simply an early holdover.
While I whole heartedly agree with just about all your points and have felt similarly about it for a long time. I guess the question is if it’s too late to do anything at this point. Like more of a retrospective of a mistep. The game is coming up on being 10 years old. Is it worth changing at this point? Jetpacks almost feel like part of the games DNA.
idk