This is my first Battlefield game, so I cannot provide an honest comparison vs the overall Battlefield franchise. I actually enjoyed the game until I started reading some of the comments and found myself agreeing. "Yup, ammo and lack thereof is an issue. Yup, medics, where are they? Yup, agree with the hard meta that it pushes almost from the start. Yup, vehicle damage, did I just damage that tank or did I hit a tuft of grass. So regarding the overall pains felt by those familiar with the franchise, I hear you.
Of course, being a South African, we have almost no players online, and it's been getting progressively worse. One can only really play the game between 7-10pm, thereafter, you'll struggle to find a game.
I think the game will have better potential if they address the mentioned issues (also provide more cover - too many open spaces), but I'm afraid the damage is done. People have moved on, and I feel there is a large portion of people that won't come back, even if they get an email or a msg stating "that awesome patch/DLC is now available, we've listened and your dreams are about to come true". They've moved on to better things.
For me, I guess it's back to the Dark Zone and PVP in Div2.