Do you remember how many people threw a bitch fit and some actually stopped playing after kill times went up by one round plus a bit of time for bloom in Reach? It would dig Halo's grave deeper.

: Or it'll make automatic weapons competitive with precision weapons. You never know.

343 is trying to get xL33TxMLGx types back on to Halo, that would work against them.

Anyway it's not the point. That change would make the BR incredibly frustrating to use unless you just never zoom in and can handle and enjoy playing that way. It would also make SWAT BRs harder and give it an even bigger skill gap (although there at least it does arguably raise the skill ceiling). It wouldn't improve the weapon or the sandbox. The only way it would work is if they did it like the Halo 4 light rifle (or toned down the zoomed-in shot so it did the same amount of damage as non-zoomed) and that met with a resounding "meh".

: You know what? In all the time I've spent daydreaming about new guns or
: vehicles that Halo needs, I've never stopped to wonder "How is this
: going to affect multiplayer balance?" And I'm not going to start.

Well you shouldn't be the least bit surprised or disappointed they'll never happen then, because the people who make this stuff have to think about balance and the role of each item.

: If it's going to mess things up for the matchmaking crowd, they can do without.

That's not going to happen, especially not under 343. They put every weapon in multiplayer (heck they near enough put every weapon on every map).