Lets compare aggressive frame pulses vs 600rpm auto rifles.
I will use Sacred Providence as It will be the only surviving Aggressive Frame after sunset AFAIK.
600 rpm auto rifles have a better TTK of 0.70s vs 0.73s and are more forgiving. If you miss 1 bullet out of either 4 round burst you loose( and 6 must be headshots). To go even further if you dont 2 burst your target he can win if he lands all body shots and 1 crit.
600 rpm auto rifles have better handling stat by alot. Agressives feel like heavy grenade launchers.
Max range Sacred Providence has 6m range advantage to a max range 600 rpm auto Rifle
600 rpm have less recoil/weapon bounce after the rapid hit nerf
600 rpm auto rifles have more aim assist
600 rpm auto rifles have a better body shot TTK of 1.2 seconds vs 1.6 seconds
Basically they replace aggressive frame pulses for the simple fact that they can duel an aggressive frame pulse at 40 meters and win. Mostly they win due to the higher aim assist, the faster and more forgiving TTK and the fact that Aggressive frame pulse rifles dont deal with flinch very well. They honestly need buffs to handling and a small bump in aim assist.
Just some additional points, honestly not trying to argue that 600s arent strong currently. Though I don't feel that's a bad thing personally. More primary archetype optimal ttks should come more closer to 0.7 to make special weapon OHK potential less oppressive, but that's another discussion entirely.
Honestly there's lot more gun archetypes and frames that need more urgent help than aggressive pulses.
The 0.03 ttk difference is non-existent. Lotta sweats still use 150 hand cannons with 0.8 without issues while being the most competetive they can. The optimal ttk really just becomes a valid argument when you start going over 0.8 and towards 0.9, which really is towards the slower end and can easily start costing you fights.
For an 600 rpm autos to shoot beyond 30 meters without dropoff you need the highest zoom scopes.
The low zoom scoped and the barrel perked 600s are automatically out of that category, pretty sure they function in the hand cannon ranges capping out around 30 meters.
Then the only relevant scoped 600s are forward path and ether doctor. No one uses the doctor, so the argument then is the Path.
The path's definetly a strong gun, being able to shoot to the ranges it can cap out at with a max range stat + highest zoom scope.
But you are still giving up the ease of use a low zoom scope would provide in closer quarters for the high zoom alternative. The highest zoom scopes also give it more effective zoom than sacred provenance / non-scoped aggressive pulses have, so provenance brings the same performance for lesser / easier to use zoom. And with scoped highest zoom aggressive pulses the effective range goes beyond 40 meters respectively.
I'd argue aggressive pulses are still in a good place and unless you meet the 1 guy running a max range highest zoom forward path, you'll still have a 10 meter advantage over 600s in the longest ranges. And even closer up the optimal ttk is effectively the same. 0.03 really is nothing.
There are also a lot of other weapon archetypes with low handling. It gives them identity, and I'm not sure the correct answer is to just give everything high handling so nothing stands out in that category. Might as well remove the stat and make the stow/ready + ADS speeds a constant then.
Handling perks / mods exist for a reason.
Also how do pulses deal with flinch worse than autos? Not sure I see that point.
180s, 450s and 110s are some examples of archetypes that actually need help and have for a long time now. They're arguably completely irrelevant in a competetive sandbox comparison.