They already did exactly that. Only difference was that High Impacts at 0.87 charge time won out because they needed the least amount of bolts, have a weaker version of Firmly Planted built in, and could stretch ever so slightly farther and still do okay. And bar changes in other categories since then, there wouldn't be any reason to run anything that isn't an Adaptive under an 18 meter cap, since they're the fastest charging options that have relative consistency. Since it used to be that you got nothing but very slightly less spread (IE, the cones were slightly smaller) from having more range. Adaptives would be the only real option since Rapids are already super inconsistent, Precisions have little to no benefit, and High Impacts would go from bad to unusable. I'd rather Fusions just be reworked to not have spread, but kick harder.

I meant to bring the cap in even more. I think if adaptive and precision hit well outside slug shotgun range (what’s that now, 12 metres?) and rapid hit around that (charge time and spread vs precision shots) and the high impact hit to that 23-25 (general primary ammo fighting range) then there would be room for all archetypes. I’m not against other changes but I do think changes are needed. As long as most archetypes can easily one shot within primary gun fight ranges, the weapons will always feel cheesey. They just need to be restricted more. Your idea could work and others could also. I’m not saying how we should definitely get to the end goal but just that we need to make a change.

Well, there's a few issues with bringing in the cap much more than where it's at (soft caps at 20 meters, hard caps at 21.5-ish). 1. Slugs already destroy Fusions when they get in there. And while yes, they too need a rework that culminates in a net nerf, 11 meters for instant damage or a close-to instant body + melee vs. a hypothetical 16-18 meter hard cap. 2. Lord of Wolves exists. I think it's range is only 2-3 meters less than the best a Rapid Frame can get (15 meters with any consistency. The 9-bolt pattern and terrible stats means you lose consistency before their actual point of falloff), without any charge time or random spread, which IMHO already close to invalidates Rapids. You'd have to nerf the range on that (which isn't needed) pretty heavily to have it go from being a better option, to outright invalidating things. 3. It brings us back to a scenario of having Fusions being trash in comparison to the shotguns. Sure, pellets need a hard rework to remove random spread and bump the OHK range a meter or two, at the cost of general speed and falling instantly to zero, but that's a different topic. But answer me this, why would I ever consider running a Fusion if a shotgunner can take 2 extra steps and dunk on me? Sure, pre-charging exists, but I'd rather take the option with far more mobility and not having to wind-up for 2/3 of a second over hitting 18 meters. 4. Fusions only outrange Sidearms. SMGs are on par with them at similar Range and Zoom stats (if not better where you get 16-17 zoom, especially considering SMGs don't care as much about stability). Almost every AR, every Pulse, every HC, and every Scout easily outranges any non-exotic Fusion, where the 2 exotics that aren't technically capped have iffy consistency in the case of Telesto, or don't have much raw power, like Jötunn.