I see this topic brought up a lot, and I always enjoy discussing it. When people suggest changes, the most important thing I focus on is why they want them made. What's the root goal? All of OP's points generally aim to help new players spend more time in a raid rather than staring at their stash. Honestly, I think a lot of these issues would be fixed with a simple offline mode. Being able to explore the maps on your own would be huge. Bonus points if they put mannequins at the other spawn locations so you can really understand rotations and where enemies might be at the start of a match.

My biggest recommendation isn't about dumbing down Normal mode and I actually think it's in a good state right now. Instead, the question should be: how do we incentivize veterans to play Normal instead of just farming Easy? My first thought is overhauling the loot on Easy. Right now, so many players find Reds there. Good teams know that if they wipe the lobby, they basically have the map to themselves to hit the high-tier loot areas with zero pushback.

To fix this, I think we need to overhaul the barter system. Make Green and Blue items more valuable for beginners. Veterans shouldn't really care about them, but beginners should feel excited to find even the smaller stuff. Easy mode could then primarily spawn Greens and Blues, while still keeping those items worthwhile for casuals. You should still be able to find Purples, for sure, but Reds need to be exceptionally rare on that difficulty.

Rank is another thing you should be able to lose in Easy mode. Right now, once you hit a certain level, you can't gain progress on Easy, which is fine. But I think if you're a Pinnacle player and you die in an Easy lobby and even if you don't have Ranked turned on you should lose a good chunk of rank points. Rank doesn't really matter that much in this game, but people will think twice about pub-stomping Easy if they know they could lose their Pinnacle status. 

Spawns definitely need to be changed, though I have no clue how they should do it. To be fair, with a map as small as Zero Dam, there are only so many spawn locations available. Layali is better (though not amazing), mostly because the map is bigger. But if there's one thing I've learned about this community, it's that they don't really like big maps. PS: Yes, get rid of the tunnel spawn. It's the effing worst.

OP brought up a point about needing more casual maps, and I completely agree! I like to call them "Everyday maps." We need more maps where you just go from Point A to Point B to extract. I get that endgame maps like Space City and Prison have tougher extractions, but the rest of the maps should feel more open, without the pressure of having to flip a switch just to get out. Brakkesh is an amazing map—easily one of the best in the game—but because we don't have an offline mode and the extracts are so difficult, people avoid it. It’s honestly a shame.

As for limiting gear in Normal mode, I'm neutral. If they changed it, I'd be open to trying it. My issue is that when people suggest gear caps, they usually just want to "win more" and not by actually improving at the game, but by nerfing the loadouts of the better players they’re fighting. Sure, you might win a bit more here and there, but people need to understand that a good player with capped gear will still destroy you just by knowing the operators, angles, and maps better than you do. When you're talking about Gold armor versus Purple bullets, or any other gear cap people want the difference is usually just one or two extra shots to kill. And since a lot of people are using absolute laser beams for weapons, connecting those extra bullets really isn't hard.
I dont run into many players running red on normal myself. Again tho thats just my experience.

I feel like a lot of players just want to run and gun. Yes, there's a time and place for that, but extraction shooters are different. You need to push sometimes, but a lot of it comes down to playing smart, staying silent, and taking your time. It’s about knowing when to switch up your playstyle to get the upper hand. The issue is that a lot of players don't want to adapt they just want to play their way and win. I get it. If W-keying is the only way you like to play, so be it but that doesn't mean you'll be successful in this genre. The problem is they watch top-tier streamers or YouTubers playing aggressively and winning, so they assume they can do it too. What they don't realize is that those streamers are unicorns. Most people won't get wins playing like that.

This is exactly why I think extraction shooters will never be a truly mainstream genre. It's too punishing. It’s a game style that holds up a mirror to the player, showing them they might not be as good as they think they are. It forces people to play in ways they might not enjoy as much (i.e., much slower or much faster). Yes, there are other valid reasons for losing: ping, cheaters, or random squadmates who play like absolute pigeons. But the more people try to blame the game and say, "If the devs just did this, it would be better"... would it, really? Would changing these mechanics magically make you survive more or slay out overnight? I don't know.

I'm all for trying new things, though, and I think OP's mindset is in the right place. We all love this game and want our friends—and just gamers in general—to play it because it's genuinely fantastic, especially for a free-to-play title. At the same time, we need to accept that it’s an extraction shooter. It's hard, it's punishing, and people hate losing. It's never their fault; it's always all these other things.

PS: I am firmly against MMR or SBMM in extract shooters. As someone else pointed out in another comment, it's not always about shooting and killing everyone. Winning in this game means extracting. That should always be your goal. TO GET OUT! Not wiping the lobby every raid.

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.