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The problem with Sniper being a first-line of defense is that his range and safety advantage make him too good a line of defense. In fact, so good that the forward and rear base defenders have nothing but Scouts and the occasional Medic to deal with.
Sniper is neglected in league play (because people prefer to use movement heavy classes like Scout and Medic to get as many captures as possible, and the Sniper can't keep up with the flow of O.) so we have to examine this more from a pub perspective. Pubs turn into DvD amongst other things because of the 2 or 3 or 4 Snipers that hang around popping off any momentum toward a push to the defense on either side.
What one sniper in league couldn't do, two or three in a pub can. This is not just a case of the defense doing well. Take the forward-base defenders, the real 'front-line'. It consists of Soldiers and Heavies and maybe a lone Engineer on pubs. Now, to combat these classes, you have to get close to them. They must be close to you in order to defend from you. Not absolutely the same distance, but close enough.
It comes down to whoever can get close and use smarts and force to tip the battle in their favor, because the opportunity for both players to interact come at nearly the same time. The Sniper's interaction ability is constant no matter his range; The other nine classes only have interaction ability at close range. So, battles with the Sniper come down to whether he gets lucky and hits you or you get lucky and prevent that from happening. You have to avoid his 'session of interaction attempts' to get your own.
It's like playing Chess and allowing your opponent the ability to move ten times before your opening move, which gives him the ability to rig the board in his favor before you even get a chance at moving a single pawn. The other classes? Well, they take turns and level it out by being restricted to close range.
Sniper? No, it's called 'rush across the yard as many times as you can so you can at-least get a position where you can interact with the Sniper to combat him. All the while traversing the map, he has full interaction capability with you and not you with him, so breaking the defense he puts up becomes more difficult than breaking Soldiers or Heavies, because of the extra element of having to PREVENT getting interacted with before you can interact with.
Map design is shit on some maps, because when you combat a Soldier or Heavy, given his positions distance from the spawns and his class speed, you can often take them down and get rewarded with a good window of opportunity for offense to sink in. Killing a Sniper sets him back a few steps and all he has to do is walk out of his spawn. The window of opportunity between kills and reset is so small, that people have to actually camp battlements or stick around to pressure the enemy and allow their team a chance.
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