Players in all combat roles take necessary measures to maximize their advantages while minimizing their risks. In the case of snipers a large part of that adaptive strategy involves discovering good positions on each map from which to engage important points in battle. These locations are selected not just because they offer high kill opportunities but also because they offer vantages and cover that compensate for the frequent immobility that's required to quickly find and accurately strike targets (and I'm talking about both strategic camper-style sniping and the tactical run & gun style). For these reasons detection avoidance is often paramount, especially in fittings that sacrifice defenses to enhance sensor and weapon capabilities (for instance, the scout I used tonight has a mere 204 EHP and is almost sure to die in any CQC encounter). So for CCP to take away favorite sniping spots and force snipers to change their knowledge bases and strategies while facing increased risks of detection and counterfire, this is just as bothersome as having a favorite firearm or other gear nerfed, especially when it's done on the sly like this.

If you want near invulnerabity then park a rail tank on the redline. You won't get it in a scout suit fitted for stealth, but you can certainly take scalps from tapdancing groundpounders within range of their beloved Carthums and Duvolles.

Snipers are the most hated people in the game. One must remember, Symb, that none of these people that bash on snipers have ever used a Kaalakiota Tactical Sniper Rifle in 8v8 corp battles of yore. None of them have had games where, despite the alpha damage and DPS both being drastically too low have failed to go 20+ kills in a Planetary Conquest match against one of the more well known corps. They do not understand the difference between using a Thale's TAR-07 Sniper Rifle, an Ishukone Sniper Rifle or a Charged Sniper Rifle and just assume that they are overpowered because they have been killed by one. They each lack the understanding of the maximum damage possible with Proficiency V, 5 damage mods, and a Thale's and that a Heavy or Sentinel ak.0 can actually survive two head-shots from it. Or that a Logi gk.0 and ck.0 can both survive a headshot from that fitting.
That because they have seen someone do well in a pub match with a sniper rifle that it must be the easiest weapon to use.
Or perhaps they have had moderate success with the sniper rifle themselves in a pub match, and their experience clearly paints a picture of that one or two times they did really well.

After hundreds of PC battles sing the sniper rifle, yes hundreds-there is no hyperbole here-, I no longer have a suit fit with a sniper rifle other than my Covenant Sniper Rifle that I use to quick-scope people for laughs.
I spent 6 months of this game where the only weapon I was skilled into was the Sniper Rifle. Since uprising 1.0 I have had nothing but more and more reason to put it away. This truly killed it.

Have you seen the new DUST514 Facebook&G+ cover photo? It's the old photo only doctored up for a few changes: Most noticeably is that the Sniper Rifle was emoved from the Scout (as they want to make everyone forget the Arbiter suit ever existed) and was replaced with a Rail Rifle.

Overwatch has barely existed in Uprising. From 1.0's 100m hard cap on rendering to 1.2's 100m on a 2D plane. When the rendering distance increased the culling/Z-fighting got worse.
Rendering got better in 1.5, when they added the new maps, rotated the null cannons on old maps, and changed the installations on the rest to prevent sniper rifles from shooting anyone hacking- of course Forge Guns and rail tanks and mass drivers still had the splash damage to continue this process.

This problem only becomes more persistent when people, for example DJINN Jecture or Drako Cerberus, continue to propose incredibly ill thought out "improvements" to the game, while simultaneously bashing anyone that shows an inkling of difference in opinion. Especially when it comes to the sniper rifle. And all these arguments are always rife with logical fallacies.

I gave up the fight to keep the sniper rifle viable or useful in 1.5, you can see my most recent posts on topics about sniper rifle just asking for a refund of SP and the weapon just being removed as CCP obviously has some deep seeded hate for the weapon... I haven't seen this much discrimination outside of the treatment of gay women of color in a while.

I know you just came back a few weeks ago because you enjoyed the game, so try picking up that duvolle, play a few games and have a couple drinks with your friends. I always enjoy squading with ya, Symb.