BF3 had a huge problem with weapon balance with some of then being so overpowered (M16A3 mostly but the AEK being a close second) that everyone on the medic class used then for example. So yeah, I agree with you there.
But BF4 on the other hand while still having issues, handled weapon balance way better. I'm playing a lot of BF4 right now after I started gaming on PC and the weapon variety killing me has been great and pretty diverse as always. Same experience I had in more than 1500 hours on PS4. I always felt like most people playing BF were playing with the guns they enjoyed most (like you with the L85) than the ones considered top tier at a particular moment. Obviously you will always have the try hards to the only play the meta weapons.
Attachments are another matter, grips offered little variation form one to another like you said.
And that is one of the reasons that I fail to see how attachments are going to minimize the lacking weapon selection problem now in 2042.
A PKP with a long barrel, 4x sight and any kind of grip is not going to be different enough from another PKP with a shorter barrel and a red dot sight and any grip to compensate only having 2 LMGs. If you are talking about ammo choice, I honestly think that should not be on the game and everywhere I saw during the beta it seems that people were running mostly with the default ammo type.
I just hope the content drop starts early and keeps steady because after 1 or 2 months we are really going to need it.
