I'm really hoping the times of "tank ping pong", tanks with "health" and simplified damage system ("critical damage zones" FFS!) and MG 42 balanced around DP28 are over.
What really made RO obsolete from the day 1 was lack of bullet penetration. No, it didn't ruin the game, but only because it was THAT good. So introduction of such "novelties" may make the playerbase much bigger.
However....
If reload speed, weapon switching speed, moving speeds, stair-running speeds etc. are as fast or faster than in RO, that's simply a step towards COD. If someone didn't like RO1, then he won't like RO2 either. Unfortunately so far the new game seems to lack focus. It's neither realistic nor really "fast paced". Something in between, not exactly appealing to any group with specific taste. But yeah, maybe "casual gamers" are going to like it more.
And you know what people probably really hated in RO1 (at least I did at the start)? That even though it was so "realistic", the key to being a good player was just knowing all the right spots on the maps, cause it's not possible to make battlefield "dynamic" even with modern technology. We fight over the same area for hundreds of times. And new players are totally slaughtered during their first 30-40 hours of gameplay. No matter how good shooter you are, you're going to get shot and shot and shot till you ragequit. You can't really do anything about it, unless you make maps small and cramped like in... COD (in such case everyone knows all maps after few hours of gameplay because there aren't that many "spots")
But it's not a good deal. Making maps smaller may exten the playerbase. But it would make this game much worse in the eyes of many. Cause that would throw out of the window the thing, that made RO unique in the 1st place - big maps that allowed so many paths and different approaches.