The main disconnect I see with defenders of current abandon is the lack of understanding in how impactful an abandoned vehicle actually is to a game and just how easy it is to recover when it happens. It's rare, but it absolutely removes any notion of skillful play once it does happen and flips the table sideways in a way that isn't fun for anyone looking for a good game.
Oh believe me, I have lost and won games by abandon myself. 4 total maybe?
But vast majority of them were pre abandon "nerf", as of now, unless you dived a single suicidal vehicle and basically given it to enemy/he gave it to you, its not even possible to recover it against equally skilled opponent who wasn't completely forced off the field.
The mechanic basically decides the games in so tiny, minor, insufficient % of games that I see this whole thread as little more then another "I lost one game, I think I lost it because X, therefore I will rant about X to have it removed" kind of thread.
Take literally any tournament we've had recently and count how many games were won or lost because of it.
You'll find out that this is not an actual issue, but a result of people running out of things to bitch about.