The thing is, there are two things about the stick mags. The first is that even at the "Raw recruit" level, a Soviet soldier in Stalingrad would have had a drum magazine.
Say I want drum magazines, but don't usually use the PPSh. Yet, if I want the drum for the rare occasion when I take the Assault class as a break, I will have to grind exclusively with it for at least a few days, possibly even longer before I obtain the configuration that by all rights one would have had from the outset.
That would be almost as bad as bayonets being an unlock for the bolt actions.
Second, the higher rate of fire of the PPSh is a double-edged sword. Yes, you can fill an enemy full of lead faster. Yes, you have a higher probability of hitting an enemy sprinting across a doorway because more rounds are in the air. But at the same time, in a close-quarters spray-fest, your 35-round magazine will run dry long before that chugging 550 rpm MP-40 does.
And if you enter a room, see four enemies, and go into panic mode, that puny stick will be empty before you know it and the remaining two Germans will riddle you. In that scenario, I'd take the slower-firing MP any day. You can very comfortably control the recoil and mow down all four enemies at 550 rpm.
The drum magazine was designed to allow an untrained, inexperienced recruit to throw out a protective wall of lead. On a larger-scale tactical level, the PPSh was intended by commanders to send Germans running for cover. That large magazine played no small role in bogging down the Sixth Army in Stalingrad. It's what caused a frustrated German officer to snarl, "They use gangster tactics!" It was the trench broom of all trench brooms. On the steppes of Eastern Europe, it bested the MP40. In the winding hillscape of Korea, it bested the Thompson.
The PPSh's rate of fire made it formidable. Its rate of fire combined with its large magazine made it a beast. That beast was in the hands of countless Soviet soldiers during the most pivotal battle of World War Two --not after they fought a battle or two, but from the very beginning as they stepped onto the western bank of the Volga from the hellish ferry crossing.
RO2: HoS has been confirmed to be feature-locked until release, so there's not much we can do for now but hope. But oh, what a hope... Forget the bickering over in-game languages, rare weapons, and bailing from tanks--where's Ivan's dear
Pa-pa-shah?
