Final results:
While a large chunk voted for either, the majority want to return to the variants route. The biggest thing I saw from votes and comments is that people want a lot of variety more than anything else, that's where I stand as well.
While I really enjoyed variants in GW2 and at first was disappointed by the removal of variants in BFN, I had gotten used to it and had found it easier to choose which characters I wanted to play and at which times in BFN. That said, I would really like to see new variants in a new shooter as well as keeping all the characters that they had in BFN. If so, though, they would have to tweak characters like Snapdragon and Electric Slide if they were to add variants (because they are already technically elemental variants).
Honestly, either option has their advantages.
