Here you are attempting to confuse two distinct gameplay mechanics - Raiding and PvP. There is nothing wrong with Unturned providing a focus on PvP. In fact, considering that the survival mechanics in 3.0 are so poor, it is most definitely for the better. But how easy it is to raid is where I find issue with the game.
Have you ever played Yukon? Like, for a prolonged time? Say, a session of several weeks long? Genuine question. Because from what you’ve said, I have genuine doubts you’ve played much, if at all.
Yukon does not magically “remove” raiding, and it shouldn’t. Raiding itself is by no means an problem. What is a problem, however, is how easy it is to obtain raiding gear in obscene amounts, on other maps, right off the bat. As I’ve said previously, mega + mechanic + crafting 3. And this baby-tier difficulty is exactly what Yukon fixes.
There are no more military locations, and megas no longer drop explosives. Instead, raiding gear is now moved over to a spawn table that has otherwise been completely fucking useless. What is the last time you stopped to loot the construction site in Seattle? No, seriously. Think about it for a second. In my 1000+ hours, I have never looted it even once. And this is coming from someone who loots most stores in a city because the more food the better.
But that’s not all. There are a lot - and I mean a lot of construction drops on Yukon. There isn’t a central military base a clan can camp and seriously screw with the odds of someone getting raiding equipment. Furthermore, even if Yukon’s setting does not necessary make it harder to survive, it does make it significantly slower to progress.
Imagine you log onto Yukon and want to start raiding as soon as possible. You will need a base. Food is scarce - only real source of it is Whitehorse, maybe mere scraps at other locations. If you have any plans that do not involve starving to death you are kindly asked by the game to build a basic base, plant some seeds in a planter, and secure yourself a food source.
C4 and Detonators do not have a high spawn rate - you will not be able to get enough to raid a base before you starve to death. Oh, and I almost forgot - that’s just food we’re talking about here, how could I forget about thirst? There’s no rain, rainbarrels won’t work. Yeah, you either go to Off-Limits to get a sample of berries or you do not have a consistent water supply.
Did I mention that C4 are quite rare? When I asked the top clan how much they’ve had, they claimed they had fifty. This, while an insane amount that could raid my base up to 5 times over (which they did :^) ), seemed reasonable. They played all day, they played in a team, and they played good. 50 C4 felt like a fair amount, contrary to 4 alternate characters filled to the brim with Dragonfang ammo, C4, missles and rockets. 4 alternate characters per clan member, that is.
Raiding does not contribute to PvP. Unless the server is running some kind of anti-offline raid plugin, saying that Raiding contributes to PvP gameplay-wise in any way is like saying being attacked in Clash of Clans contributes gameplay-wise to attacking someone else. And apart from the apparent loss of resources, those statements are simply not true.
Additionally, I am not very sure what you meant when you called the raiding update “weird”. Removing the ability to raid with low caliber was an excellent choice. While I may complain about Horde Beacons, they require at least some amount of effort. Camping at your base in Olympia 24/7 doesn’t.
P.S: The Honeybadger, while a disappointing addition to a survival map, is not nearly as bad as you think it is, considering the rarity and the scarcity of the ammo (a mag or two vs the piles of raiding gear you will get if the mega drops a detonator). Especially considering that most, if not all weapons had their TTKs significantly lowered because of a lack of military-tier protective gear. Ace, for example, will now always 2 shot in the head, assuming bleeding is enabled.