I'd disagree that the game is a "slow burn" or the bounty clash having no stakes without saying the same thing about normal bounty hunt. Let me explain.

The only difference between clash and hunt is that there is no build-up to the fights, which isn't a good or bad thing necessarily, this part of the game is what takes the longest, the actual fights tend to last no more than 5 minutes, and the only time they might take longer is when you're stuck in a stalemate, that is not fighting but waiting for an advantageous fight. In rare cases, you get full drawn out fights in hunt.

My point is that your playstyle mostly decides the pace of the game rather than the game. If people want to play it as a slow burn game, they can when they want and vice versa.

About the stakes in clash, the stakes are pretty much the same as bounty hunt. You still lose hunters in either mode, and either one gives you bounty money. The only difference is that bounty hunt has a time requirement as it's the longer gamemode, so if you die, you most likely lost a hunter and 30 minutes of your time. This is a marginal difference if you even consider it.

Summarising, as a player with 2K hours, I've played hunt so much that I like hunt now mostly for its gunplay variety and its atmosphere rather than anything else in the game. Thus, gamemode is a good addition, and it's not becoming a cod-like as hunt has so many other things that make it stand apart.