A gun should do the same damage as another gun given it’s setup the same.
A coachman with the same mods as another coachman should do the same damage.
But make it “Rarer” and suddenly it does more damage? How?
The receivers in Fo4, I could forgive for game-play purposes, maybe you could reload your brass with more powder or whatever, but the rarity system just doesn’t make sense, and honestly pisses me off.
I wish you could mod weapons in fallout 4 to make them as good as the later weapons, like the 50 cal pipe rifle looks interesting and I would like to use it but it socks and I can’t make it any better, would have been cool if you could
I think that’s part of the progression, though, you sort of outgrow the ghetto pipe weapons and move into proper weapons, and that second tier that the combat rifle sits in is good enough for end game with upgrades.
Otherwise a player might feel good enough sitting on pipe weapons all game and subtly feel less progression and satisfaction from the game due to lack of visual novelty and progression in weapons.
However, they probably could’ve added more upgrades to keep using the pipe weapons, but have them unlock late or through specific quests you’d have to seek out, and make them very expensive material-wise to disincentivize sticking with the same weapon all game, but still allow it.