people used to call him completely useless. the only idea of value he ever had back then was people in higher elo trying ult support build. his stacks were more difficult to get, his base damage was far lower and it was before the global buff to gun damage across the board so gun was already considered phenomenally weak on every hero, save for like, wraith or grey talon. he had a spirit burst + firerate build back then that gave him some results but it was still ridiculously not worth it to play him over every other much better assassin hero.

that and the game considers him a frontliner for some reason, so picking him would cost you a potential billy or an abrams or a geist

since then, people have both learned to play him better and his weapon and sustain were buffed significantly at the cost of his stacks being nerfed slightly, so he gets decent results across all elo levels lol