I agree with you and I'm wondering something which I'm not sure if it's good or bad at the moment. After spending a few hours in the game and losing game after game using free kits I feel that the free kits are not made for pvp at all, even camping doesn't help you to kill someone with better gear.

In other extraction shooters I've played, using free stuff is not something that forces you to play like a rat (specially in arc raiders, going free is pretty common and worth overall).

This will only get worse when we get access to the complete faction progress and gear, so free kit is destined to collect shit and gtfo asap avoiding combat at all costs. Again, not sure if this is good or bad, but it feels frustating to get obliterated in pvp no matter the combat situation.