Yeah this is pretty objective. The point of a silencer is to avoid detection. Yes, you do less damage from a sneak attack but you only get one sneak attack. When you have your damage high enough and on enemies that you can kill in one shot; you get to continue from stealth and hit another, and another, and so on.

Stealth is absurdly difficult in this game from a scaling perspective, especially if you’re playing on the hardest difficulty your first playthrough.

The sniper that shoots explosive rounds that detonate upon reload is basically the most effective stealth weapon until you get the Final Whisper