Funny. People call for the Gauss Hog to be nerfed because it's OP and then people come back and say that vehicles should be more overpowered. I enjoy powerful vehicles. I think there's something to be said for teams that have a guy who's job it is to destroy/control the vehicles. I also think that things got a little bit crazy in Halo 3. Enough said.
As for the OP, I want to say welcome to the forums! Hopefully you choose to stay! Good post, by the way, I do appreciate the organized and respectful fashion in which you presented your argument/opinion. To quickly comment on your statement about the flag carrier, I think the pistop + flag is cool idea, but might need some tweaks. It changes up the game, but one thing it does is it almost makes the flag a power weapon as it is a one hit kill. It's a different game, that's for sure.