This mostly sums up the architect. I’ve done Master runs with Kat when the game came out. I wouldn’t call it handicapped. It is totally viable but Del flat out has everything she gets besides the hologram. Del’s class has a higher discount, fort health, repairing gives stim. Baird’s class brings more dmg with deebee weapons, faster lockers, precision repairs. The only thing Kat has is her ult and her stim card requires you to do virtually nothing besides don’t get hit for X amount of seconds. The ult is perhaps the best ult out of the 3 engi classes. Del’s balls are a nuisance at best. Baird’s bot is good with bleed but half the time it doesn’t shoot when I want it too. That hologram is really useful and the extend perk works on ALL weapons. Not just the pistol like it says on the description. You can toss that thing out and so long as your shooting with a tri shot or something fast, you can keep it out almost indefinitely.
I will say I still use the architect to this day to have fun. I was really hoping TC would overhaul these classes when they separated characters. As for randoms your better off lvling up mechanic or robotics expert.