Iron banner is the only place stats do anything so they wont be balanced for pvp

Yea but all the supers taking so long to charge probably has something to do with PvP. All the classes being so similar. They still have to balance all of their skills. If they made the classes as different as borderlands' PvP would never work, so instead they are all virtually the same with tiny differences

None of the classes are very similar but the fact that they all use guns and can use them in similar ways. They have different stats, abilities that make them play a certain way, supers that change their positioning, and movement skills that allow them to position differently. Also the PvP isn't Holding anything back. The PvP literally is the only place where things are different it Ben tells you what it has balanced. When you are in PvP they have made it so you aren't affected by the PvP because you've chosen not to participate. It's the reason your hand cannon can blow something's head off on one shot, the reason your rifle kills so quick, the reason why your hot gun continues to mow enemies down without opposition. They aren't balanced to be fairly fighting another player on even ground. Instead they are vanilla PvE and make it so if used right allow you to triumph over the AI.