@Lord_Scorpion34I don't think I've ever bothered to pick up a pistol in this game, even as a place holder.
The only autos I have any use for are the car and the havoc. I'll pick up an alternator or a volt and use them if I have to, but neither is first choise. Devotion is the best auto in this game, but the odds of getting it properly kitted are far too low so I mostly won't even bother picking it up.
But the only truly useful weapons in this game are the charge rifle and the tripletake. I'll pick up a longbow or sentinel only as a scope holder until I find one of the other two. If a match gets down to five or six squads and I still have a sentinel, then I'll get into position, line up the shot, pull the trigger, puzzle over why the exact same cr shot would net me 80 damage while the sentinel didn't even connect, and then quit the match.