Your idea of finding a safe position and avoiding taking multiple shots is very inefficient: especially now that we carry a ton of nanohives at once (which, I might add to your post, you should place them where they won't be seen at all, not just away from you)

When I used to snipe, I would move pretty often: I would find a place that gives me a good firing window of the action, use up a mag or 2, then move on to another spot before anyone catches on.

Also works well considering that fights tend to shift, and the reds could easily move to an area your current position can't really fire into.

A lot of nerfs to snipers happened over the years.
Aside from the range decrease, ever since the reticule was "redesigned" the hit zone of a sniper was reduced to match the smaller dot.

On top of that, you ping someone... no credit unless you take out armor, as well as the "recognition" time slot is absurd. you can take a target down from 800 to 4 health. They run off and start regening a bit, only to about 30/40 or so, and another person then kills em? No credit. None. The regen trigger kills off all association after a few heal ticks.

Kill assists get ignored, as well as most of the WP come from assists, not direct kills, unless the field is swarmed with scouts.

Higher performing rifles were poo poo'd even though I can run around with a Forge Gun and get higher "sniping" kill ratios than a regular rifle. (I just did it last night)


Edit: Oooh i almost forgot the most essential part.
The fields are not permissible to sniping in any way. I'm not talking about objectives, which should be covered, but rather the routes to and from them. If you look down a field, you will see boxes at strange angles.... cranes in illogical places, and guard rails along bridges... with an extra beam magically at head height. Why? To make sure snipers cannot get clean shots in nearly any venue.

This has resulted in the best spots forced to be above the play field, in predictable locations.
You can't get decent kills without being in one of these spots, nor can you survive long if you sit in one.

If infantry encountered maps designed specifically to stop their guns from hitting their target, you can bet the maps would be changed in under a day.