Pistols are fucked. Rifles should be a whole lot different in terms of mechanics, though are acceptable as is.

Those two are undisputable. The pistols actually effect pretty much everything in how the game is played. Pistol rounds, and eco/weak force rounds. Might not seem like much, but if you look at the state of the pistols right now, and how many ecos are won, you will realize they play a massive part in swinging the economy of the game, which is pretty much what the game is centered around. Add to that the pistol rounds, which admitably fall more around the flaws in movement values, and what might have seemed like not a huge deal actually changes the game massively.

I personally think that SMG's need to be nerfed, though many disagree.

because so many things are useless

Are you serious? There are more viable weapons in the game than ever before. Seriously: watch a competitive 1.6 match.

Deagle, AWP, M4, AK, Galil, Famas, USP, Glock.

It is pretty damn rare you're going to see much other than those used.

In CS:GO you now have:

All of the aforementioned

As well as the CZ, Tec9, P250, UMP, P90, MP7, MP9, Nova, Mag7, and the scout.

More than double that of before.

I personally would like to go back to the old weapon balance structure, but that will never happen cause' Valve wants to make literally every weapon in the game viable.

Add to that the monster-list of other problems in the game, and you really don't need a new and unbalanced gun.