As others have said, vs. a poor aiming group, lights can be king. Vs. a good/average aiming group, lights can be "one shotted" wimpy". Overall, people are becoming better skilled/better aim with time.
From my experience, lights are underpowered both in armor, firepower and low score modifiers/bonuses for doing "light" responsibilities (scouting, targeting, holding targets, harassing, drawing enemy fire, causing large groups of enemy to chase you taking them out of the fight - non damage roles that add to a teams success exponentially).
I have also noticed that while there will almost always be a degree of new/unskilled players, overall, with time, players have become more skilled with their tactics (less amount of "lone wolfing it" and more staying with the group) and better aim and "one shotting" (sometimes with high powered weapons like guaze rifles, PPC and multiple stacked large lasers etc.) is becoming more common. A light would be foolish to go into a group of opponents as this would most certainly bring an early death. All of this is making the "lights" more vulnerable and less likely to contribute overall as the game ages and more people practice and more time goes on.
Lights cant really brawl, they cant really trade shots, they don't really have enough firepower to do significant damage long range (on most occasions), they cant really go one on one, they usually can't "carry" a team at the end, their weapons are usually shorter range so they have to usually get closer which is usually more dangerous, they usually die faster. All of these factors people know about, and you have to look no further then the "wait times" to see which classes/types people prefer. Lights are head-bangingly challenging with little reward (comparatively). Especially against a group of skilled/good aim opponents.
Which class significantly and typically has the least/shortest wait times? Overall, people are not stupid. While some people like me will continue to play the "lights" regardless (I like the challenge), this "wait time" should tell you all you need to know overall about the hardest class to play and the class with the least amount of reward.
Edited by Blue Pheonix, 24 September 2015 - 10:09 AM.