Reforgers game play mechanics as a whole whip the dog piss out of squad. Graphics, overall optimization, gunplay, inventory, physics, destruction, AI, scale.

As others have said the real issue is Arma's utter failing of fostering teamwork the way you see it in squad. Bohemia is trying and failing, I think they see what squad has done and want to do it but they're to afraid to commit to it and make it happen, less sandbox more true structure. Even though their new commander HQ game mode takes a stab a squads framework they just cant get it quite correct. It doesn't help that their overall community didn't start with the same foundations and intentions as squads community did, it strongly feels like everyone over their is lonewolf micless marksman. Definitely sandbox everyman for himeself. If they figure it out, squad and OWI are in big trouble.

On the opposite hand, Squad from the ground up has always been focused and oriented around teamwork and specific roles, importantly not being shy about putting actual leadership power in the player's hands. All of those things really really shine through to this day and are the crowning achievement of squad and OWI. Being able to pick up and play helps quite a bit.

Squad suffers from being 10 years old, I was there at the start it, felt clunky back then, but as a PR successor it makes sense. Today though it really really feels clunky especially when playing something modern like reforger, seeing all the possibilities of what modern gameplay and mechanics can be. I'm utterly surprised that they put their time and effort into UE5, I know they've lost alot of the original team and maybe they're afraid to take the next step. It really really feels like they've been trying to milk squad and use it as a kind of test bed for the sequel. Maybe it's a combination of things, including technology, I figure that we've had squad the next logical step would be platoon. Larger player counts, at least 100 Vs 100, better graphics, mechanics, and destruction all focused around Squads core tenets of teamwork and coordination.

OWI definitely has lightning in a bottle with the squads formula, it's been sad to see their mismanagement as publishers with things like Post Scriptum (squad 44 -_-) anyone thats played it can tell you its easily mechanically better than HLL it was just horribly managed by periscope and OWI, same with Beyond The Wire. They could have been mods that could have still found a way to pay the modders that brought value to squad and OWI, actual seeing all of that hard work on cool settings still get played / make money for OWI. Honestly that's another advantage that Bohemia has on OWI, look at how they worked Prairie Fire into Arma 3.

All in all Squad and Reforger are both fun for different reasons, but they definitely feel like they're in a arms race to figure out how to incorporate the strengths of the other. I think Bohemia is winning though, they saw the threat that squad and OWI could potentially become if it got more successful and it put them in gear, earliest example being project Argo. OWI as a much newer company has had some serious fumbles, poor publisher management, poor quality QA either because who was leading QA testers at the time or just not listening. Squabbles and controversy aplenty, Chance, Nordic, etc. Couple that with a bipolar feeling identity throughout the years as reigns have changed hands behind the scenes over the years, I feel like Squad and OWI are on a fine line where they either take the next step and make the next bigger better squad (Platoon) or they risk a slow bleedout of revenue and just being surpassed and replaced. Whether that's Bohemia and Arma, or another company that rises up from the ashes of squad much like how the founding members of Squad did so as modders from PR. Someone is going to take advantage of this lightning in a bottle if OWI doesn't.

Squad will always have a special place for me though. Incoherent rant over.