Halo has always played better when players are given a versatile utility weapon off spawn regardless of developer intent. Whether it is a Pistol, BR, DMR, etc, the versatile weapons are always going to be a better spawning option.
The problem is that as they are now, these weapons can’t all exist at the same time. Having a Utility Pistol, a BR, and a DMR is completely redundant and that is not even including Warzone or Covenant/Forerunner weapons of the same archtype(which are also a problem but that is for another thread). Their superficial differences do little to change that fact and at the end of the day players are just going to choose the one that is statistically the best or in the case of the H5 Pistol and BR they are so similar it just makes more sense to get better with the one you spawn with.
Some folks will suggest spawning players with a weaker weapons in order to encourage players to pick up other weapons, but all this ends up doing is frustrating players and demands for players to spawn with the better weapon anyway. No weapon should ever be designed to be thrown away or kept only as “secondary.”
All that being said, the real issue is this: The Halo sandbox has too many weapons and not enough truly unique niche’s to go around.
I know everyone has their favorites, but at the end of the day, tough choices have to be made as devs only have so much time and resources to create and balance a weapon sandbox. Throwing in every possible weapon is just leads to superficial variety filled to the brim with functional clones just like Halo 5.
So at the end of the day we have 3 choices to make:
*Choose either the BR, DMR, or a Utility Pistol as the universal starting weapon: A weapon that we can start with in 4v4, 8v8, and competitive modes that has a high skill gap and allows players to fight back in most situations off spawn. Helps prevent matches from snowballing.
*Choose either the BR, DMR, or Pistol to be redesigned as a niche weapon pickup: One of the weapon needs to be redesigned as a niche weapon that has some sort of concrete advantage over the starting weapon that makes it worthwhile to pick up over the starting weapon depending on the situation. Not nearly as versatile, but is very powerful within that niche.
(Examples: SPV3 DMR, Sentinel BR/DMR, Buffed versions of the H2/H3 Pistols(See also: Halo 5 Gunfighter Pistol), OG ODST Pistol).
*Choose either the BR, DMR, or Pistol to be removed: Realistically speaking I think this is ultimately more of a choice between the BR or DMR as I don’t see the devs removing the Pistol outright regardless of what role it plays. It is never fun to have to cut weapons, especially when you know whatever you choose one of them is probably going to be someones favorite. Sadly it needs to be done, especially when you consider that there are still Covenant and Forerunner sandboxes to consider as well as brand new weapons.
For me personally I would have to choose a Utility Pistol starting weapon and a niche SPV3 DMR as a pickup. That is simply because I prefer single shot weapons for the sake of consistency and I happen to like having powerful Pistols. That being said, I think all the combinations are valid, and I’m curious to see what others choose.