Nothing about snipers was changed from 2.601. The way the accuracy modifiers play their role also got in the way of easily adjusting things. Regardless, just because the most knowledgeable people get it wrong doesn't mean their opinions are worth as much as anyone's. RTS multiplayer is obviously a pretty complex environment and you just don't get it right in one go.
Also: the MG re-setup time and the reduced cost of Wehr Tier 1 units came completely out of blue if I'm not mistaken.
For competitive objectives, you can listen to the good players, but those objectives don't have to be the developer's objectives. The idea is to sell as many copies as possible: if "increased competivity" through mirrors (still rather speculative, I know) among things leads to CoH 2 being high profile, then that works out. That's assuming there's a proper "e-sporty" thing going, which isn't guaranteed in any way.
Alternatively, if it doesn't go e-sporty, I don't know if people are turned off by the inclusion of mirror matches up to the point where they don't buy the game. I don't know how people would decide without buying the game... maybe the reduced word-of-mouth marketing that would have otherwise gone through people such as yourself seriously damages sales. 
i think some stuff concerning the sniper was changed, but what i wanted to say is, that the sniper mechanics COULD have been changed, but weren't.
concerning CoH2, i don't think that Relic (or just quinn duffy) has a lot of interest in coh2 becoming very e-sporty, at least from all the comments and interviews that i've seen. and i have pre-ordered the game and will not change my mind just because of mirrors, and i do not intend to bad-mouth coh2 either :-P
Mirror matches aren't for people who only want to play 1 faction - I really don't know how you're missing the point of them, even now - they're for competitive players who want to see as much potential imbalance taken out of the game as possible.
You repeatedly say you want to "see as much potential imbalance taken out of the game".
I believe that balancing maps, units, commander abilities etc. for 3 matchups is a lot harder and much more of a lengthy process than it would be for 1 matchup.
It's what i've been saying all the time, mirror matchups don't alleviate balance problems, much to the contrary they introduce problems that didn't exist before.
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