Um... so... I am confused of why anyone would say the pistol was unbalanaced. Let me put it this way... EVERYONE STARTS WITH ONE! It discouraged the following actions
Camping, Running in, and camping over powered weapons.
Lets face it, the current Halo was ONLY about camping the weapons. Everyone knows it. You cant say the Sword, Shotgun, Rocket, Sniper and Battle Rifle are all on equal plains... I cant imagine anyone arguing that.
Further more, the weapons were balanced in Halo 1 plasma guns slowed, the sniper was great for far away, the shotgun was great at close range. If you were stupid enough to rush in (something ALL Halo Reach fans seem to love) you died instantly because of the pistol. There was none of this run in and melee.
Further more, I would just like to say if bungie was trying to make the game more realistic with the battle rifle firing so poorly, then they definitely should have made it so your aim was worse if you used a jet pack. Anyways, bungie messed up big time when it took out the pistol. I am good at Halo Reach... and even I know the means of being good in Halo Reach requires far less skill than in Halo 1...