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> There’s clearly existing elements in ‘classic Halo’ that remove the player from this desired ‘gun-always-up’ state (switching weapons, reloading ammo, entering/exiting a vehicle, driving certain vehicles, entering/exiting a turret, deploying equipment, not to mention throwing grenades, or meleeing - I may be forgetting more) so why are these examples accepted as exceptions to the rule; more so than clamber for instance?
“Gun-always-up” isn’t to be taken literally. If you look at where this phrase comes from, you’ll find that it refers to the fact that movement abilities shouldn’t interfere with combat abilities; that movement and combat should work together seamlessly rather than as two separate modes of play where a player has to interrupt one to do the other. But that’s a very long thing to say all the time, so people come up with all kinds of shorthands for it.
When it comes to the things you listed, switching weapons is a necessary mechanic that gives the player the ability to hold two weapons. That is so immensely beneficial to gameplay that the fraction of a second delay makes no difference. But here it’s worth noticing that the weapon switch animations in Halo are always very fast, because restricting the player to a long animation would significantly alter the feel and style of gameplay.
Use of melee and throwing items are combat abilities. Therefore they don’t even interfere with combat. With that said, I see no immediate reason why the player shouldn’t be able to throw things with their left hand while shooting with the other. However, there’s an obvious limitation to the speed of melee and why it blocks weapon use, which is to avoid insta-kill animations like BXR in Halo 2.
Reloading is not a necessary gameplay mechanic. Indeed, there are weapons in Halo that don’t have a reload mechanism. But it is also a useful mechanic for limiting the usability of some weapons. It is part of the cadence of a weapon, just like the rate of fire. Generally speaking, the length of reload animations isn’t even an issue asd long as they’re reasonable, since the player can reload anywhere they want, which almost always allows them to time their reloads outside of combat.
Vehicles are an entirely separate mode of play. Nobody has to use them—indeed, you can play Halo multiplayer without ever seeing a vehicle if you want to—but they are accepted as an extension of the sandbox that intentionally provides an experience completely different from on-foot play. Therefore nothing one can say about on-foot play needs to apply to vehicle use. And that doesn’t matter because they take nothing away from on-foot play.
Nothing here is an exception to a rule, not only because these mechanics have nothing to do with standard player movement, but because there is no rule. There is just a philosophical principle that explains why some mechanics are disliked more than others. One should never try to apply philosophical principles as rules, let alone literal interpretations of shorthands for those principles.