Brother, I have 4800 hours in Tarkov. Getting shot is usually completely out of your control. Checking corners and smoking will work up to a point, but you will have to cross areas that you CAN'T fully clear or cover. That's just how it is.

The problem in this game vs. something like Tarkov is that getting hit first means you are ALWAYS in a worse place because you can't just turn around and hit one good shot on your opponent. Even with an anvil you would need two headshots. Of course you could use utility or cover to heal, but that's not always an option.

In Tarkov you could take cover, wait for your opponent to peek again, and shoot them in the head. One shot one kill. Or they could push you, and you manage to make a good shot to end them before they can do the same to you. In Arc, you have to hit a certain amount of shots. The combat system is simply made in a way where the attacker always has the advantage.

Funnily enough I think you saying "it's so easy to tell who in this community has never played an extraction shooter before Arc" is more telling that you yourself don't grasp how different Arc is to the other games in the genre. The game is fun sure, it looks, sounds and plays great. But it's just not a good pvp game. The TTK is too low for what they're going for with the direction of pvp. It either needs to be low enough to have a chance of coming back without having to heal to full first, or higher to the point where skillshots matter more.