Competitive uses base guns. That's actually what got me thinking about this. Also, my question was about general use of each gun. I think Bals are much more commonly seen in pubs. Would this be the case were the ironsights swapped? I actually see the Insanity quite a lot, but yeah the Steed and probably the Inferno are probably still more common than the Insanity. Here's a comparison between the Steed and Insanity:
Obsidian Steed
Better TTK 75-100 feet
Better ironsights
Better recoil pattern both with and without foregrip
Better comparative damage profile with silencer
Slightly better ADS time
Insanity
Better TTK 0-75 feet
+6 close range damage and +8 mid-long range damage, causing more flinch and potentially lowering HTK
The Steed only has a better TTK within that 25 feet range, but because of the recoil I'd agree that it's better anywhere longer than that too. So, the Insanity is better 0-75 feet, and the Steed is better after that. The Steed also has better ironsights, is hurt less by a silencer, has +2 mag size, and a slightly better ADS time. The Insanity has +6 damage up to 75 feet and +8 damage between 100-140 feet, giving it the flinch advantage and advantage against already-hurt opponents. I think the vast majority of encounters occur within that 0-75 foot range, so Insanity does have an advantage if we only go by TTK, meaning for the Steed, the ironsights, potential for silencer, mag size, and ADS time would need to make up for that. Also, I don't know how badly the Steed is affected by the fire rate nerf. Frame rounding should reduce the drawback, but I've tested personally that the Steed DOES fire slower than the base Bal, at least in intro firetime. What do you think?