You make good points. But everyone honestly uses the stats incorrectly. We, as players, only have access to general trends. That's really it. Unless there is a significant outlier, the trends don't mean much. And even in the case of an outlier, we have to ask ourselves why. So let's ask why we see huge hand cannon usage. Are they blatantly over powered or do their inherent strengths just benefit them the most in the environment Destiny creates? Considering that even when 600 rpms autos were running rampant on console 150 rpm HCs were the [i]only[/i] thing that could compete with them and not a single soul could justify calling them OP, I think the answer is obvious. We also almost exclusively have maps that favor hand cannons. All our competitive modes really have a focus on team shooting as well. Hand cannons also do enough damage that they can clean up a sniper body shot or prime someone for a shotty cleanup, which also makes it obvious why these two specials are used so much. So it becomes obvious that hand cannons benefit greatly from their inherent strengths (peek shotting, cleanup potention, prime potential, team shot potential) far more than other weapon types. And there's no way to change that except to nerf them to the point they're useless, like Bungie did with 140s on console previously, or make something else just blatantly OP, something Bungie has also done. So just due to the inherent strengths of hand cannons, they will [i]always[/i] be at or near the top of the meta, even in a balanced sandbox. Anybody who wants anything different just doesn't want balance. Just how that is. Now could some other primaries be brought up a tad? Sure. Lower impact pulses. 450 rpm autos. SMGs. List goes on. But in a balanced sandbox, the weapons with the most inherent strengths are going to be the meta, or close to it. There's really no changing that. And then people are gonna flock to it like sheep and skew stats even more.