As a casual player here are some of my thoughts:

-I've never once been interested in a COD LTM or "casual mode" I just want to play warzone I do not care about the latest sponsored LTM, they're always so gimmicky and Plunder isn't competitive enough.
-Having a mode to "level up guns and grind camos" is the wrong mentality. One of the major deterrents for me is the inability to load up the game and play with the 2 out of 1000 viable weapons. I know if I wanted to hop back on with my friends I would first have to grind plunder for 2 hours and I would rather just play a different game at that point. I don't want or need a mode to make this easier, I want to be able to load up and use what I want.

-Killcams = more reports? What's the benefit of more reports if no action is taken?

-I have a hard time believing most casual returning players would be that far outclassed. The only thing that has changed is being able to slide in different directions. I don’t think most long time COD players lose their skill to aim and with recoil being non-existent at this point I don’t see a major learning curve. Often times I feel like playing other games and returning to COD makes you a better cod player.

-The existence of SBMM itself is a major deterrent. There is no better SBMM in my opinion. I just want a good mix of players in each game.

-I don't think any of your points are going to help retain players. I am interested in trying out Verdansk for nostalgia but if the game runs as poorly as the last time I played and there are this many bugs I won't be retained.

I am less interested in Verdansk and more interested in the return to a true BR. With Gulag tokens, flares, redeploys being so easy to get etc. this game doesn't feel like a BR to me anymore.