for EA developers who only listen to pro streamers not regular players

A long while ago when Caustic's gas had it's blinding effect nerfed and had his damage increased from 5 - 10 to 6 - 12 as compensation, a lot of people who played caustic even admitted and said they don't care about the damage increase at all. And I doubt we will have any 'deciding factors' removed now, because most of the time I stay in gas for 2 - 3 seconds, which is a potential loss of damage of 1 - 3. I doubt this 1 - 3 damage difference is going to impact how combat works.

I believe that comparing Caustic to another legend - namely Gibraltar in this case - who is told to be overpowered is wrong. If that legend is inevitably going to get a nerf, chances are the comparison will be redundant as well as soon as it hits. And besides, it would only be fair to compare caustic to the averagely picked legends which in my opinion pose the middle ground. That's approximately the range of the game which we should balance around. And when I personally compare Caustic to the average, I don't see how Caustic finds himself in a bad spot. If you compare him to certain meta-combinations, then sure, he's underwhelming but only because many of these combinations revolve around active combat.

Caustic is good at what he is. Trapping locations and being a defensive character. And he's a tad bit too good at this and becomes even better when paired with certain other legends. Because raiding a very well trapped building that is filled with Caustic Traps is not just a tedious task, but takes a lot of time and puts you into the danger of being attacked by a third party. And you can't just walk away either because then they'll likely shoot you in your back.

If people play Caustic aggressively and complain about his traps being a risky ability to use mid-combat, then the term 'trap' might have flown over their head. Because a trap is supposed to be used on unsuspecting enemies. You're generally encouraged to camp places with him, and try to stay out of open fields as much as possible. And when I followed this general play style, usually all matches went pretty well and brought me at the very least a few kills and being among the top 3.

Camping is generally an action in shooter games that is frowned upon. And it's not fun to fight against campers. Which is why some actually good shooter games try to minimize the locations you can camp in, or try to make it easier for players to take out someone who finds himself in an advantageous spot. Caustic takes camping to another level by being able to fortify his camping location, and in turn makes it harder again to fight against a camper. So not just do you encourage an already frustrating way of playing shooter games, you make it even worse by giving him the ability to further fortify his locations.

I think when it comes to 'Caustic being bad when he doesn't have his ability', this applies to a lot of other legends as well. The reason why some other legends are better provided with non-ability based combat is due to their hitbox. And seeing how Caustic is a big character compared to the walking void paper, of course Wraith is much better in open fields and generally better rounded when it comes to combat. If we had much more consistent hitbox sizes and made it so that low profile = more frantic movement and fortified = slower but lower damage, we'd be much better off, and that would put a ton of legends currently deemed underpowered in a much higher place with their current skill set.

Point in case: If Caustic was made less camping focused and we had his abilities adjusted to be much less powerful inside buildings, but instead we round him much better for open field combat, then I personally wouldn't mind seeing him as often as I do right now. Because then we have a legend who is okay in open fields, but only good in buildings. And not like right now where he sucks in open fields and aggressive combat, but is an absolute annoyance to fight against in buildings.