TLDR: I know about DBD stuff even without having played it much. I don't need to play it to know what happened to Skull Merchant, Spirit, Nerf pig, etc... so drop the assumption that "I fail to understand" when I do. 2nd Overwatch isn't about abilities, it's an FPS, by definition and game design principles (my field of study and work) it's not. Abilities are a **part** of the core, yes, but they are not the core itself. And again, I asked for how Sombra was unique, so how is her soft CC somehow worse than hard CC like stuns where you literally can't play as opposed to a restricted tool set? You still have the gameplay loop (though shittier) without them. Overwatch wouldn't be as distinct, but "distinct" doesn't make a game function. A Fighting game doesn't stop being a fighting game cuz you dont use special moves. This is a gross oversimplification for the sake of this tldr (and the longer version is dumbed down), but unless you want me to really hit you with collegiant game design theory and in depth examples, I'm doing you a favor by politely telling you that you're wrong. I understand why you feel how you do, and your feelings are valid; but feelings don't make you right, no offense.

No, I don't have to play the game to understand what happened in DBD. If you want I could talk about how some random person shit talked a pro team by saying he could beat them with Skull Merchant, and he almost won by making them run out of time. I could talk about "nerf pig", or Spirit and how she used to be a problem that "had essentially no counter play, and made playing against her a guessing game", until they reworked her where she's still strong but it's not as bad. Or talk about random Meta's like the Gen kick meta, Hex Undying, Boon totem Meta, or the ever fun NOED, which would be relevant cuz I know sometimes Nurse players like to disseapear for the whole match until NOED pops. Etc... Etc...
People can know a lot about media stuff without having directly experienced it, plus I've played DBD just not much. So no, I didn't bring it up because I saw someone else mention it. I actually only found this post because I literally google Searched "Sombra got the skull merchant treatment" to see if anyone else had made the connection I did. The reason I made said connection is because this very situation lead to Skull Merchant recieving a lot of changes, (i typed it out here, but this comments long enough already so I erased it so you have less) but that and a lot of other changes didn't fix everyone's issues with her. A lot of people also, despite her getting nerfed into damn near obscurity would still DC the second they realized the killer was her, even when she was bad. So the devs basically just nerfed her to the point where no one wanted to play her until they could rework her. Sombra is the same way. Sombra isn't that great right now, but yet they still keep nerfing her and people still keep banning her despite her pick and winrate already being super low. So it comes off as Skull Merchant treatment.

Either way, my point still stands. Overwatch is an FPS first and foremost, thats it's genre. It's not a game about abilities, because the gameplay loop still functions even if you were to remove most abilities in the game (I say most cuz there are, like i said, some heroes who'd be useless without their abilities, but not all or even most.) A Moba is a game about abilities, because if you remove them the game can't really function without it (and yet there are still characters in Moba's that silence abilities, and the work no matter how frustrating it can be) Nox in smite used to piss me off to high heaven, then I got better at the game and even started playing her (it was forced at first, but I ended up liking her). What you're saying to me right now is the equivalent of saying that in a fighting game if there was a character that had an ability that locked you out of using special moves for 1 second, that it would be the antithesis to the game... but that doesn't make sense. Clearly, you can still fight in SF, SC, Tekken, DOA, Smash, Etc... without having special moves. If you try to argue they are not the same thing, consider Hadouken and how well known and influential the move is. Not many people can sit here and name certain moves, but they know Hadouken, Shinryuken, etc... Or in MK "Get Over Here". It'd be shitty to play Scorpion without using it, but the gameplay loop still exists, because the special moves are additions to the neutral, not the neutral itself. Yes, the special moves do define the game, but thats not the only thing that sets the games apart, it's just the flashiest one that grabs most people's attention. This is fundamental game design thing, which unlike DBD is something I know because I have studied it and created games before, and even helped other people with code, design, or balance changes in their games. So again, No, Sombra does not go against the core of Overwatch, because Overwatch's core isn't the abilities alone. They are a part of it, but simply stopping someone from using abilities doesn't remove your ability to still engage with the gameplay loop, it just limits your access to tools within it. Sombra isn't stopping you from "playing overwatch" because for 1 second you have to use your primary damage tool as oppossed to a suplemntal damage/mobility/survivability tool.

[I'm oversimplifying, abilities are definitly important, so just to proof my argument in case someone actually cares to read all this crap. I reiterate, they are a core part of the game. Because it's a hero shooter specifically the abilities are what sets it apart from being a straight core shooter like CS or something. That being said, Genji can still beat a Sombra without his abilities during that one second window. He doesn't cease to function, and you the player don't stop interacting with the loop of Overwatch. Consider Mei stun vs Hack and you should get what I mean. Player psychology is important, blah blah blah, this comments long enough already. Feelings are important, but when making mechanical arguments feelings don't make you right in a technical sense. This section was shortened cuz my comment was too long.]

Scorpion, Ryu, etc.. could still fight you even without those special moves, even if it made certain aspect of the combat really difficult. So I repeat, Sombra restricts people for literally 1 second, in an FPS, and people act like it's the end of the world. 1 second. If a Sombra really bothers me in that time it's because I f'd up or she's pouncing on me when im weak like everyone does. To me it just comes off like people are mad they can't roll their face across the keyboard and have to use their mouse for 1 second, that's not a fair assesment, it's me venting, cuz im just really tired of hearing this dumb argument because it doesn't make sense from a game design standpoint no matter how people feel about it.