The suit description- which is something I'd wager a million ISK that new players actually do read- explicitly notes the AmLogi as being better at direct combat than the other logi suits. The way that this plays out in-game is that it receives a sidearm, thus keeping it from being completely helpless- either at close range or entirely so- when using certain primary weapons *cough* laser rifle, swarms *cough*.

Moreover, the Amarr logi suit having a sidearm slot also makes it- at least IMO- ideal for players who find repping to be insufferably boring, uninteresting, and generally uncompelling gameplay. The fact that I can be busy providing uplinks, nanos, scans, and maybe even revives, while at the same exact time occupying myself with the part of the game that involves shooting other players in the face, is incredibly attractive.

Yes, you can in fact do that in any logi suit. However, the Amarr Logi having a sidearm slot brings a lot of interesting combinations and increases the attractiveness of certain weapons for logi suit users. The biggest and most obvious one is the swarms+sidearm combination, seasoned to taste with proxy/remote explosives, nanos, a scanner, or anything else you could possibly desire for equipment.

Moreover, your mentioning of "energy resupply", "heat reduction", and *narrows eyes* repping makes me wonder just how much you remember about current mechanics. Because there is no energy resupply, heat reduction is suit-specific bonus, and it's actually the dirty Minmatar logi that has the rep tool bonus.

The Amarr Logi bonus is to drop uplinks. As such, it really is more beneficial for it to have a sidearm, since it improves a player's ability to defend a position- by both safely deploying links and then preventing them from being camped (because being on the receiving end of that sucks).

I do agree that the Amja is far superior to the AmLogi right now- at least for the STD level suits- but, based on reading the Logi thread that Cross started (42 pages is a LOT to read through... good thing I had a lot of free time that day) it's actually a complicated affair with no singular cause, and lots of different ideas and options on what should, and what will probably be, done.