Marathon is flawed at its core (currently)

Just watched a 15 min YT vid by Proximitty titled "How Many Players Should it Take to Stop You?" (I'd link but Reddit removes)

The first two segments are particularly important - the rest revolve around specific games and where / how they fit into his hypothesis.

The most interesting to me, however, is the top comment regarding Lanchester's square law, where the 3 players in a 1 vs 3 are not just 3 times as powerful with their three guns against one. Instead, imagining that our 1 v 3 is happening in a closed hallway with no entry or exit and both teams facing each other. Now it is one weapon AND one health bar against three weapons AND three health bars - 9x as strong as the one.

While I held random variables constant as if this was some Econ theory class, you get the general concept. The video touches on how games grapple with this disparity. Halo starts even but allows map control via power weapons, a good example of middle of the road player agency. CS is the extreme of agency, as every player can buy the AK which is the same as a halo power sniper, 1v4s are very possible in CS.

COD is the inverse of CS, pros stack all the micro advantages they can to provide the best chance of winning each individual gunfight which is why they often float around a perfect 1KD - this is the closest to marathon in my eyes as the player has very limited 'agency' over the game (very intentionally an unforgiving game and was marketed as such)

In marathon, you are intentionally thrust into an environment that was built to make you feel small and powerless. This builds the allure of an extraction shooter - we all remember our first perimeter run and how alien it felt, how the concept of a space ship holding gold loot was near biblical.

I'll try to tie my ideas together here: the elite players experience the marathon we were all meant to with a large player count - the thrills of getting and losing loot quickly, build-crafting and running with friends. This is the marathon that I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, most of the friends I played with have phased out, so I've lived the solo player / more causal and the sweaty experiences. The unfortunate reality is that a premade trio that consistently plays marathon should be in the minority, however with current player counts you will encounter a 'sweaty' team in roughly 1/2 - 1/3 games you play regardless of cryo, which would be every game.

The brutal friction point is the fact that the less coordinated or solo players are not at a true 1 v 3 disadvantage, or even a 9 times power disadvantage. Compounded with loot and just plain skill, my rough estimate is a non competitive team is going to kill a competitive team 1/20 times, or a 5x chance. In previous terms, I think there is a roughly 20 times power advantage held by competitive, coordinated trios over casual players.

I don't just want to throw complaints at you so here's my idea for a fix. The PvP exists already and with some consistent balancing change ups can sustain itself long term. I think there should be another outlet WITHIN EXISITING SWEATY LOBBIES TO PROGRESS.

Some ideas for what that could look like:
- more consistent loot spawns, ex. Go to algae for credits and valuables, quarantine for heals, maintenance for implants, etc.
- better stealth during events: while you can navigate the moa quietly, any worthwhile loot in the game is locked behind PvP given current audio, visual, and UI indicators.
- make abilities do a little bit more across the board: valorant is interesting because the abilities allow for skill differentiation and even some one shot cheese to catch better players off guard without traditional gunfights. Current marathon abilities don't feel game breaking outside of fairly niche interactions and currently meta abilities like recons ult. Make destroyers shield scary. Make assassin invis like really invis. Make vandal FAST during her ult. Give recon actual outlines of enemies and remove the team share (lol), you get my point.

Idk I'm thinking out loud any comments?