The Role of Fire Rate in Modern Combat Firearms

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Most gunners only need 3 - 4 bullet groupings to get something done, and that's often what they aim for
In firefights, most rifleman and so on, even with new guns, only fire at about 15 rpm
The reason it is really good to have a high fire rate is not becaUse you want one
It's because your barrel, receiver, and so on, have all been made to handle the heat, strain and so on, of a gun firing that long, that fast
This is why all of Stoner's stuff is great to shoot, but also lasts so long; they make shit that will handle huge strain, but then keep the rpm low so that you don't waste as much, don't have so much kick, and so on
Once you get to the point where you can shoot something full auto, outside of really slow full auto, almost nothing beyond a given rpm is going to make a huge chance, outside of wasting ammo and making it harder to shoot. The truth is, an MG42 isn't going to kill you any deader after the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 9th bullet
It's great to be full auto, you get blindsided, you can spam, you have lots of guys to shoot, you can, but you have to understand that 600 is already 10 bullets a second, no living man is going to fire on more than 3 guys with bursts in less than a second, let alone something like 6 guys, at least, it's really, really unlikely. It makes you good at close and long range (shoot faster, shoot slower)
The Germans got their men to fire only for less than half a second, in other words, breathe on the trigger
I also think things such as the Bren and what not have done really well, the Stoner has too, in firefights that is
I also don't know if your likelihood to hit meaningfully goes up because of lots of shots; if you were off, you're not likely to be even more on him when you start firing.

The Gunner's work is to pin and move
The Grenadier's work is to wreck dugouts and the like
I think the DM's work is more to do with-