Random weapon drops are definitely not more balanced than set ones. Also, yes its "optional" to take an ordinance drop but considering 99.99% of people always take it thats a silly comment to make. Also, ordinance drops are mainly based on time, so pretty much everyone always gets an ordinance drop if you are playing the game.
The list can. But they want higher numbers because of their precious "JIP system" and because most players nowadays are caffeine addicted ADHD kids who get mad when they have to wait for more than 1-2 minutes to play a game.
You can say the same about every playlist. We don't need CTF, just play the game for fun! We don't need dominion, play the game for fun! We don't need to have "winners" and "loser" just play the game for fun! We don't need to track W/L or K/D just play for fun!
Besides, like it or not, but the more popular a games competitive community, the bigger and better the game will do in the long run. Look at all of the games with very popular competitive communities: Starcraft, CS, LoL, DOTA, etc (Halo USED to be a part of this list, but the competitive community is dying :-( )