ppc is not the problem. the whole heat system is f'ed, with there being no incentive to maintain damage over time rather than to dump as much as possible as quickly as possible. the heat changes mentioned in the command chair have been kind of encouraging, if a seriously-convoluted solution to simply changing the heat scale across the broad (to quote paul 'it would be a nerf to everything!!!!11one' .. you're a designer, paul, surely you understand that change to output across the board can't be a 'nerf' since that is a term of relative comparison, but whatever..)
anyway, the usual suspects will continue to scream 'NEERRRRFFF X' or 'Y' or whatever the flavour of the month is like the drooling, gibbering idiots that they most certainly are, but the core problems (for now anyway) remain unaddressed, and the best paul can offer are convoluted systems resting on top of other systems which rest on top of yet more systems to try and encourage a particular playing style.
Some things that will change the meta considerably:
Lobby. When you're selecting mechs as a group, even for a pug match, understanding what the other people are bringing relative to your own needs/wishes.
Team Drop Tonnage Restrictions. A single 4-ppc mech isn't as much of an issue as a) having every single assault mech dropped fit that profile or
having 3-4 assault mechs in the game fitting that profile. When you're significantly capped on how much weight your team can bring, ungodly PPC spam becomes less of an issue.
aside from tonnage, some kind of a
battle value system would throw a wrench in the tech minmax, though even tabletop struggled with this one so it would probably be a titanic undertaking for the PGI team in its present form.
A more complex
heat system rebalance, pilot impairment at upper heat levels (equivalent to flight sim black/redout), lowered heat scale overall, increased dissipation..stuff that has already been discussed..
anyway, yeah.. if they really want to implement this silly 'penalty heat on firing multiple weapons' concept and then manually tweak output rules on every single mech variant to create incentive to running stock, thats fine i guess..thats whatever. i can't understand why a very cumbersome system needs to go in place because, again quoting paul, 'changing heat scale is a nerf to everything! OMG!!'.. surely, paul, we're not that naive.