Regarding punching mechanic, I don’t think it stimulates toxic behavior with its design, and I’ve never seen it being used in such way in my lobbies (EU, console, higher skill level). I’ve being punched for taking an item that my teammate wanted, but it’s just an “it was mine” reminder and when I gave it back, it’s all good. There were times when teammates started punching each other as we were sitting in the God spot and waiting, but that’s understandable – not everyone have patience to sit tight for 5 minutes. However, I can’t think of a single instance when my teammate punched me out of cover while we were in the midst of a fight, or something like that.
I don’t think there’s a single game mechanic in Apex Legends that can’t be abused if that’s your goal. You can annoy teammates with ping spam, refusing to revive them, keeping 20 shield batteries just for yourself, shooting in the air to give up your position, flying team off the map as jump master, and so on and so on. The solution to this is not in sterilizing the game, but in making the game fun and enjoyable to normal players so that he majority of active community would be positively-minded and matchmaking could easily find “good” teammates for you. And punching players who experience technical issues to safety is one of the ways the game allows you to care and be cared, which is exactly what’s needed to have a good time.
