It is completely wrong to assume that people only play against bots because they are bad at PvP. For many players, it’s just fun. When you face 5 or 6 bots and you have no proper cover, you are dead anyway. When you play solo with no teammates, you die even more. That’s part of the challenge and that’s fine.
So why not just let us play with our close friends the way we’ve been playing your games for years — against bots? And yes, leveling weapons while doing that. What’s the big deal? What if I want to level every single weapon to 50 and I prefer to grind that against bots? It still takes time and effort but it’s not as frustrating as random PvP matches.
We are keeping your game alive. Some of us even spend extra money on battle passes. But when you pull a move like this and take away features you once promised, it kills the motivation completely. Do you really think players will just shrug and say “oh well, I’ll just keep playing anyway”? Come on.