In game voice chat

Use to happen all the time in BF2 and 2142 when squad leaders could rename their squads specifically to bring in players who wanted to use VOIP and play as a squad. Though back then you had to create and join squads manually. It wasn't done automatically as a matter of process. You had to choose to be a part of a squad back then.

Didn't happen as often in frostbite games as Dice Sweden has gradually gutted squad and communication features over the years for a more solo, self serving style of gameplay but when I did find squads who would respond to voice comms, I would get some of the best games one could find with randos.

The absence of voice chat isn't likely to bother a lot of players. Like it has been said, it wasn't used by most players but what needs to be understood is that for those who did use it, it's absence makes a significant difference to gameplay.

One should also consider the reasoning behind putting so much development time into an extraction royale mode for the game but not provide any real way to communicate with the people you are playing with. Add this on top of the lack of all chat and lack of squad/player persistence between matches, no rental/community servers and it's not unreasonable to consider the lack of voice chat to be a contributing factor to Battlefield 2042 feeling like a very anti-social game by design.