It was like, the only cool thing about Planet Side 2. Was being able to float up a bit. Dust feels so heavy and grounded, could make for an interesting specialization.

mobility

I'm imagining that they'd only work in bursts for a few secounds so you'd never be able to get to like the top of one of those towers.

And really it's only forges and snipers using dropships for that. They can all die :P
Since a jetpack wouldn't necessarily increase your horizontal movement speed or help a whole squad get somewhere much faster then it might not detract from dropship's role.

I posted a thread about Asension Cables, Jetpacks, and Nano Jump Drive modules that would be mostly for scout suits, but could be crammed onto medium frames with fitting mods and other compromises. To answer your question, we should have jetpacks, they should be a module with significant fitting requirements and be expensive. You should be able to fly in all directions (not just hover), and shoot while flying. Your sig profile should increase tenfold, and you should be targetable with swarms while the pack is activated and a few seconds after deactivation as it cools down. Read the thread for more details.

how is this any different than using a dropship to accomplish exactly the same thing? If you're targetable with swarms, then there's no real advantage to using a jetpack instead of a dropship.

If it only went up like 5-10 meters? Maybe you're right though.

Millitia dropships are only like 70K, the jetpack module should be at least 300k for the std version. Jetpacks would be for scouts to help evade. They hit and run, flying to a balcony to escape and recharge their shields, this is very different than calling in a dropship to run away.

I don't think scouts are useless at all. It's a different style of gameplay than AR spam and strafing around like jackasses. I guess that's the pinnacle of FPS gameplay for some, and anything else is considered "wanking off."