I know nobody will see this BUT I think that even from the beginning of the warbond, the crossbow and the Eruptor were kind of steping on each other's toes, but the Eruptor had boots and the crossbow had sandals. They had a pretty similar effect to hordes of chaff, but everybody knows the Eruptor was just better.

The Eruptor completely outclassed the crossbow, and I'd say it still does. The issue is, they were both high explosive, long RoF, low magazine size guns. But, the crossbow was (arguably) better balanced, their bolts a sort of high explosive that dealt with chaff well, while the Eruptor had a high explosive, anti-tank, anti-fabricator, and practically anti-everything round.

I think bringing back the crossbows large AoE effect against light enemies might make it viable, while giving the Eruptor more of a HEAT projectile for taking out heavier targets. Even before gameplay came out with it, I thought it was always supposed to be a "hit this one enemy with the force of the sun" type gun, not a crowd control weapon.

Idk if my opinion of keeping the AoE small but the damage pretty incredible with the Eruptor will get me scalped or not...just please have mercy lol.