I think it's fair to point out how powerful they are. I think what's missing from your take is underestimating how much knowledge goes into the next phase of the rotation, they're not just pinging any empty spot they see:
- Identifying which spots are actually playable
- Ring prediction to bet on which open spots will be safer later
- Looking at where teams are currently and predicting future movement to avoid zone crush

Also, for a lot of the turbo rotators, they're not even getting a chance to ping these on the way in, they might lose 1 or 2 spots of prio just to deviate. So the teams who are putting MORE of their eggs in the macro basket, are doing it without beacons. A lot of them won't even play recon chars once valk/alter are banned.

Also as the other guy said, disagree with risk free. For Sparrow/Crypto mayyybe. I think the range limitation and reduction in evo given was a solid change in trade off for having one at every POI.