The THMPR does exactly the same thing as what a Thumper did in FF, only difference is that now you have to escort the THMPR back to base. I'm guessing that people would be complaining less if the THMPR MEK-A looked more like the Thumper in FF. Maybe if the THMPR looked like a necronus from FF with a drill instead of a deathray.
Maybe something like picture below?
If you guys want a hand held THMPR then just use a shovel.
Although, escort missions are the most tedious in existence, especially if you combine big machinery with complex open world surroundings. Path finding for such things must be atrocious to program.
I'd rather see solo players not do escorts while group players do escort missions so how about the following.
Solo THMPRs should just shoot up to the sky and be done with it, groupthumpers on the other hand can keep their THMPER escort.
Transform solo thumpers upon completion into orbital canons that shoot their payload to the nearest refinary. While the canon charges up you defend it further. the farther away you are from a refinery the longer you have to wait for the canon to charge up. After the payload has been shot the solo THMPR flys off.
I think that would be the best of both worlds, we have THMPRs that have an escort like the devs want and a non escort one that old FF players want.