simple title, simple concept.
So long as every gun and armor in the game are different, there will always be the best gun and best version of every gun. They may not always use the same attachments and attachments may even have different stats based on each gun, but at the end of the day, as long as there are players who want to use the best things every raid and those things can be obtained more or less easily, there will be a meta.
There are ALWAYS going to be players who spend their time optimizing their guns to be as close to perfect as possible, and there will always be a way to build each gun that is optimal. I understand BSG not wanting a meta, but they have to understand that a meta is damn near inevitable as long as there are best-in-slot attachments, and they can be bought or even found. The m4 or the vector, or whatever the most hated gun build happens to be is not the problem with the game.
Let me repeat THE GUNS ARE NOT THE PROBLEM, the people who optimize the fuck out of every gun are as close to a "problem" as you can get, and even then they're just playing the game how they want. The problem, ultimately, is that meta's are impossible to avoid without making everything the same.
Developing a game around the idea that there will eventually be no meta, and just nerfing whatever is the meta, is arrogant, blind, and downright a bad way to develop weapon balance. Broad balancing seldom works. Nor does just nerfing the meta.
Also, who said that meta's are bad anyways? sure they get old but as long as they are changed regularly and don't become ridiculously overpowered, they don't really hurt the game, at least I can't think of a way that a meta can hurt a game as long as the things I've said don't happen (I understand those things do happen from time to time, but we've already established that meta's are unavoidable so either way it doesn't matter).
The overall point is that meta's are a useful tool that devs have, not something to be destroyed. BSG balancing their game around an "anti-meta" idea is just not the best way to balance the game. I'm not hating on bsg, they've made an incredible game that I love. I just think that they're also people and aren't always correct and disagree with that facet of their game design.
I know this might upset some of the anti-meta people but remember, this is my opinion, you have yours, feel free to disagree, and please by all means try to convince me and others that your opinion is better, but do so in a calm matter. I'd like this not to turn into a dumpster fire post
TLD; DR:
Meta is unavoidable as long as there is something that is the best and it can be used regularly
There is no way around the "meta" without making everything the same
Nerfing every meta thing doesn't result in a new meta, it results in everything just being worse eventually
Meta's arent necessarily bad for the game
meta's can even be a tool for developers to take advantage of for events or steering the community in the direction they want it to go at the time
This is my opinion, try to stay calm and remember: it's just a game
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EscapefromTarkov/comments/oxelb4/there_will_always_be_a_meta/