@Exile The prolonged forced crouch during and after sliding is a balance reason. During the beta before it was patched, players would be 'slide hopping' (like CS:GO 'bunny hopping') everywhere because it actually gave you a speed boost and you could cancel the crouch and repeat.
However, something needs to be done about sliding. I feel that overall player acceleration / inertia needs to be addressed first with these changes reflected in player animation a bit better (like they did with the player shifting their 'turn weight' animations).
! [New Mechanic?] !
- Perhaps, after you've held down crouch long enough to trigger a slide, if you continue to hold crouch down just a tiny bit longer, then the player will further transition into a slide on their thigh/side>ass>back and go slightly further and end up prone but on their back with their legs out in front (requires implementation of the '360 swivel' prone feature of course).
So after some implementation of better player acceleration loss, inertia and animation transitions (especially when transitioning into a slide)...
- Normal crouch slide on the knees doesn't take you as far but you stop sooner, so you get to move sooner.
- Extended slide (hold and keep holding) allows you to go a little bit further, avoid more projectiles overhead because of your lower profile but takes longer to recover/move again and you end up in prone (with legs out in front).