There was the idea that the crits should be replaced with 3x default damage. That way the guards won't be able to snipe a Sniper anymore across the map because of not having damage falloff.
What happened with that though?
There was also a suggestion for having a "no blu crits" lr aswell, although even that seems to be fairly disliked. But whatever it is, blus absolutely need the crits if they want any chance at keeping the reds at bay, even if it feels shitty as hell when fights against rebellers are nothing more than going easy mode.
What I believe that panda makes more different though, is that there are plenty of rules that give reds the advantage to rebel (Minigames have to be done outside of cell area, rewardening isn't allowed, baiting is a bannable offense and 90% of blus being shit). I might be a bit wrong about some of these things being unique to panda jb though