It does, but that's part of the problem. It creates an issue when certain weapons become less reliant on ADS, especially when that encroaches on another weapon's area. The SMGs are meant to be the automatic hipfire weapons, but the AR's end up being just as good, if not better, once Sharpshooter is trained. This may be why SMG has SS as well, but that just exacerbates the issue and doesn't really make the SMG 'better' since the SMG still has a very small effective range. This allows the AR to be used as both, with the higher DPS, high clip, better optimal, and fast reload. You can carry an SMG or a Nanohive, either does the same thing now and the Nanohive is cheaper.

Is the Sharpshooter skill really necessary? Remember the old Sharpshooter? It totally borked the ranges of guns, completely ruining the game. They split it up into a separate skill for each gun, and it still borked the game. Now it's been changed to a lowered dispersion, removing the one balancing factor on the guns they grace with it (AR, SMG, soon the CR), and the other weapons are left in the cold.

So, the question: Do we really NEED Sharpshooter? Personally, I say no. I don't think it should be reworked, I don't think it should be redone, I don't think it should be put on all guns. I think it should be excised like the cancer it has always been, refund the SP put into it, and let us go about our short, rapidly cloned lives.

Edit: I've had complaints about the OP not being clear, so let me be transparent.

Sharpshooter is a name with alot of weight behind it for those of us who suffered to it in the old builds. Combined with the unfair singling out of the AR and SMG, and confirmed to be the CR as well, the other guns don't get anything equivalent and could not benefit from this skill being ported over to them. Why do the AR and SMG get a new skill to increase their DPS and decrease their reliance on ADS? Why does the AR get this at all when it is the SMG's job to be the hipfire sidearm? Why are all the other guns left out, both Vehicle and Infantry mounted? Why is it even called Sharpshooter when it has nothing to do with the old Sharpshooter and it has nothing to do with Sharpshooting(srs, call it spaghetti western, that would make sense)?

The skill just begs so many questions and I don't want the Combat Rifle, the gun I've been waiting for for more than a year, to be bogged down in the bad karma of Sharpshooter. It isn't fair to any of the other weaponry professionals that they don't have another skill to sink SP into, and it isn't fair to the professionals of the AR and SMG that they need to put SP into these skills to be competitive with their own kind.

Also, someone put up a decent point. The skill narrows the cone on hipfire, which isn't a straight-up buff. It may cause you to miss more often than not, like tightening the cone on a shotty. This is a prime example of a skill that hurts the user, and no skill should hurt the learner in any way because they cannot be toggled off. The whole point of the skill system is to give you more power than people that don't have the skill, to give you an advantage without any drawbacks. Your fitting and ship/suit are where you choose drawbacks, as you can change them. This is just inexcusable, no matter how minor.

There, my OP is now wordy. Watch all the people who will just comment on the subject line now...

So bottomline. The skill should not be here if they aren't going to give it the treatment that Operations and Proficiency have and port it to all guns. The skill should not be here if it has any conceivable downsides. The skill should not be here if it makes one gun take over the role of another. The skill should not be here.
Thank you for your time.

Lets brainstorm a few then.

RULES: Skill cannot have any conceivable downside. You are free to contest anything in the list as being OP or as having a downside. It also cannot increase DPS. Bad skill ideas include faster ROF on rapid-fire weaponry, higher zoom, and damage buffs. Also, try to avoid things that are already done by weapon variants, like the Mass Driver already has more damage for direct hits in the form of the Breach MD.

Laser Rifle: Wider beam; faster convergence
Plasma Cannon: Faster Projectile
Scrambler Rifle: Faster Charge
Sniper Rifle: Faster Refire
Mass Driver: Faster Projectile
Flaylock Pistol: Faster Projectile
Swarm Launcher: Faster Projectile; More Agile Projectile

I want it on HMGs and Shotties.
But, this game is built to suit the Caldari AR/SMG build.

I usually ADS with my SMG unless I'm point blank

Focusing on the 'Skill cannot have any conceivable downside' does that mean mass drivers and forge guns should not have weapon proficiency since a conceivable downside is they do more damage to themselves with proximity explosions?

Trolling aside I really don't understand your argument that the game should be balanced from an Skill / SP perspective. If a weapon needs a new SP sink to become balanced that fact should be able to stand on its own two feet, and not comparitive argument that, because A exist for X, B needs to exist for Y.

Sharpshooter is so the AR doesn't fall behind. As all other primaries shoot perfectly straight shots out of the barrel. The shotgun has the same thing to reduce dispersion as well.
HMGs do not need it as they fire more rounds than anything in the game.

I agree that the skill does seem to greatly favor the rapid-fire weapons; there needs to be some sort of replacement skill that'd be beneficial to other weapons (maybe increase the RoF of sniper rifles, make the beam wider for laser rifles, etc.)

No, what broke it was the Viziams and Duvolles(mostly Duvolles) becoming sniper rifles.

Correct - All other weapons should get a skill that increases their potency as well or SS should be done away with and SP refunded to those users.