No, aim assist is not a required feature. As I've said many times before, aiming is something you should do on your own, no matter what device you're using. Gamepad dead zones can be managed with settings, and such characteristics are also something that can be compensated for with practice. Even so, saying things like "gamepads are difficult" is nothing more than self-indulgence and an excuse for your own lack of practice and skill, and is nothing more than an excuse for not wanting to give up the privilege of being able to easily aim at enemies and kill them without much practice, almost like cheating.
In the first place, it is impossible to make the device disparity completely fair when players with different devices can enter the same match, but with aim assist, the aim, which is the biggest factor that determines victory or defeat in the game, is corrected by the power of the machine, which is like doping in sports, or using a tool that allows you to perform beyond your ability.
In OW2, there is no aim assist on the gamepad, and it seems that you have to aim and win by your own skill alone, but that's how all FPS games should be.
In the first place, there are high-end gamepads that solve the drift and dead zone problems of gamepad sticks, so if you want to solve the drift and dead zone problems, just buy one of these high-end gamepads.
Even with keyboards and mice, you buy a high-end gaming mouse that makes it easier for you to aim and has good responsiveness to give you an advantage in-game, so it's wrong to spoil only gamepad users by giving them these features.
So, to begin with, aim assist should be completely eliminated.
Besides, it should be obvious that, on the one hand, it takes countless hours of practicing with a keyboard and mouse to finally be able to fight properly and reach a high rank, but on the other hand, if you use a gamepad you can fight reasonably well in a few hours and even be able to fight reasonably well with experienced players at higher ranks if it's just about aiming; no matter how you look at it, this situation is strange for an FPS, but with all the strange and negative situations that aim assist has created, we still can't be naive and say that aim assist is absolutely necessary, right?
When I used to play Apex with a gamepad, I was able to fight in the game really easily and quickly, and I could easily shoot even at Master Rank, but once I started using a keyboard and mouse, I couldn't fight as easily as I did with a gamepad, and I needed more precise control to shoot enemies, and it took me much longer to be able to shoot properly with experienced players than it did when I was using a gamepad.
The reason I say aim assist should be removed from gamepads is because, having experienced both devices, I feel that the gamepad is clearly given overwhelming preferential treatment due to the power of the machine, which makes the effort and practice of players who use a keyboard and mouse seem almost meaningless.
The answer to this debate is that players who play only with a gamepad and take advantage of aim assist, which is almost like a cheat tool and allows them to easily defeat enemies, are the ones who argue that "aim assist is absolutely necessary," while players who have experience playing with both a gamepad and keyboard and mouse, or who play only with a keyboard and mouse, are the ones who say "aim assist should be completely eliminated or made almost nonexistent."
If the loss of aim assist makes it difficult to hit your target or to shoot, it's not due to a dead zone or drift on the gamepad, but simply due to the player's lack of skill and practice.