Given the format of the game, firepower is a distinct advantage.
Remember the Rogue Troopers? Hmm. Maybe not. Anyway, they always used to use splatmasters versus teams who had top of the range pumps and the early semis (Lapcos, Bushy pumps, Phantoms, Budd Orr Sniper 2's, Golden Eagles, Automags - you get the picture).
Typically they'd dig in on the woodland fields and it was a real pain to dig them out - Robbo made some crack in PGI about them getting a sponsorship from JCB, I remember - anyway despite the difficulty in rooting them out, they never usually did too well on the results list.
Then one day to everyone's shock they all turn up sporting automags - and finish several places higher than their average and probably (the reviewer at the time thought) would have finished higher had they changed their playing style to suit their new equipment. So given the trend of the sport is twoards fast paced games with plenty of firepower, faster triggers are going to give you a slight edge provided the player has the skill and ability to exploit it - high bps isn't going to do you any favours if you can't actually hit anything in the first place
Because there is no standard set of equipment (as in some other sports), you'll always get quibbles as to how effective gadget X is, and always some people who seem to do as well or better without it.
