Does Dice even have it in them?

Yep I can confirm 2042 is pretty broken.

If there's one thing I've noticed is that stacking big damage is what gets you wins in Battlefield 2042. Either by getting a high-RPM bullet hose like the AC-9, KFS2000, or by getting high-damage per shot weapons and focusing on headshots. You need to reduce that TTK as much as possible, so the game doesn't give the enemy the chance to turn around.

From what I've observed, I sometimes start shooting and the damage isn't verified until at least half a second later. I've had situations where I started shooting, stopped shooting and nothing happened. A short moment later, I suddenly see the enemy health go down out of nowhere and I'm granted the kill.

Aside from this delay, there's also this lag compensation system in the game, where it invalidates your shots as soon as you die. It's most noticeable when you shoot an RPG at a person that's shooting you. The person kills you first and the RPG just disappears. There is a reason for this. Just after the release of Battlefield 2042, there was this issue where you'd constantly get into situations where two people starting shooting each other and they both died. 

So if I'd have to make a guess, you just have to imagine what happens when you combine the two issues. You've got yourself a pretty toxic situation where the server frequently messes up the synchronization. Leading to the situation where you started shooting first, but the damage isn't applied immediately. Yet if the enemy kills you in the mean time, it'll incorrectly invalidate your bullets.