I think the main problem is that the way I see things with both games is that insurgency sandstorm is about to have an identity crisis.
If you can look at both insurgency 2014 and sandstorm, with both having enough hours clocked in to understand the game, you'll notice sandstorm is somewhat dumbed in someways.
The removal of AP/HP rounds, how OP heavy armor is, higher TTK (even with fixed hitreg it still feels like it), and the general sense of tension removed away it feels like the game is a dumbed down casual experience.
I'm a guy who loves playing tactical/milsim stuff. I even got 583 hours clocked in ARMA 3. However, I don't want insurgency sandstorm to change to become a high TTK slow paced tactical game. That just takes away the uniqueness and original formula insurgency has. The fun and moments I have for insurgency 2014 were all based on the tactical, high tensity, fast paced, and low TTK gameplay it had. Even on normal servers that had lower tick than community servers you can feel the both the intensity of incoming enemy gun fire and your gun inflicting damage on your enemies. Insurgency Sandstorm feels like it barely has the hardcore and fast paced gameplay it once had before.
Just removing the hardcore based aspects from insurgency 2014 in sandstorm is just removing the charm Insurgency has always had that no other shooter in the tactical shooter had generally aimed for. There are barely any shooters out there that blend in the game design of tactical shooters generally being slow paced to fast paced casual shooter genre so perfectly.
I don't want the game to change in the similar fashion to Rising Storm 2 and Squad. It'll just be swallowed up in the endless abyss of those games and lack any originality, uniqueness, and overall identity to it. The charm will be just gone for me and other insurgency vets who stood up to make the game retain a consistent player base for 4 long years that strives to be active and also be community content creators for mods in the workshop genuinely appreciating the game for what it is-something unique and something rare in the modern tactical shooter genre.
I get that Insurgency Sandstorm fans that are new to the franchise or people that didn't like the hardcore intensive nature INS2014 had but if you look it another perspective, you'll realize most tactical shooters in the genre don't even match up well to the unique kind of gameplay INS2014 aimed for. Insurgency at its heart has always been hardcore, tense, accessible, and with a high skill ceiling with this kind of gameplay.
Insurgency 2014 just felt almost perfect to me and other friends. The only problem we had was the fact the game was limited by its engine, that's it.
Insurgency Sandstorm is a great improvement, but the game being somewhat dumbed down feels a bit disappointing imo.