PISTOLS - Their place and value in this game. Make them more viable as preferred weapons

This is what I'm trying to get at. Moving pistols from 'last ditch efforts' to 'something different and fun to use' can only increase the amount of variety in this game.

I said removing the exaggerated damage falloff. Nothing in the OP suggests that pistols would be in any way competitive with primary weapons; just that they would be less inferior.

It is STILL a purely secondary weapon when all of them are inferior to any primary weapon available.

I think you've misunderstood the role of pistols in this game (or most games). Or maybe you do and don't see the risk/reward that must be considered.

Pistols aren't meant to be "another weapon" that you use as a go-to weapon.

It's a backup that is faster than reloading your primary weapon. "Oh damn, I didn't kill that guy with my last shot on my primary, I can either wait ~2 seconds for my reload from empty, or .5 seconds to switch to pistol and finish the job.

So it has to be clear in most cases that using a pistol isn't just more gun for your fun. It's a desperate choice.

In some cases, it is a choice because you are unexpectedly shooting at someone at long range and all you have is a close range weapon. Or maybe you just finally ran out of ammo altogether for your primary! However these are fringe cases and really not normally considered.

The beamer is a joke of pistol made by an obvious non gamer.