That's why the map is shrinking over time...
Also other than boasting you have 100 players in a match it didn't really do anything for PUBG or Fortnite to have these playercounts other than having technical difficulties at the beginning of a match. Most of the time the count is down to 60 or so before you even really get into a firefight.
I have conflicting thoughts on this. For one, it feels... so low effort. BF already supported 64 players. They were way ahead of the game. But here they are late to the BR party and sticking with the playercount they've been supporting since god knows when. Really? You guys couldn't push it to 128?
I kind of agree with you that 100 player BRs cull half the players instantly, often in laggy conditions. It seems like the Firestorm map isn't very hot drop intensive. Hot drops are fun, they make for good Twitch viewing.
I also don't like that the circle has already eliminated some of the map even before you drop. It helps compensate for the low player count I suppose, but on the other hand it basically proves that there was more room on the map to push for 100 players without compromising it from a gameplay perspective. And losing the ability to gamble on a really long drop on certain plane paths is some dumbing dow...I mean 'streamlining' of BR that I've already seen enough of and could do without.
Apex's low player count just leads to one ROFLstomp crew clearing out the whole map in about 10 minutes flat, then spending the next 2 to 10 minutes trying to find some coward team corner crouching the most out of the way buildings possible.
To be fair, I don't think any of the BRs has really quite nailed pacing down perfectly.