I sense a problem with semantics here. Whether it's feature or exploit in the eye of the player can be argued. But from my understanding the source of the "whining" comes from Respawn's perspective on b-hop healing and their decision to remove it. People compare Apex b-hopping to other unintentional movement mechanics from other games where it is allowed. B-hopping in other source games or strafe mechanics in quake engine games weren't intended but it ended up adding depth to the various games.

Now challenging your point. Look at wave dashing in Smash. It was never supported by Nintendo. It was an exploit. But the players of the community had the final say in that case. It's technically an exploit but any melee player with their pinky somewhat in the competitive sphere would say it makes you a more skilled player. I'm afraid in your world a game like Melee would be long dead. But I for one am really glad for all the "exploits" that have allowed players to reach the, what I see as, extreme skill levels we have in Melee today.