To comment on the DS stuff, I still don't see how the character is ruined by low gunshots being as stripped as they are, when he still has stuff like j3, a pretty solid wakeup defense game, and guns STILL are absurdly fast and beat out most other projectiles (and you still have to scout MB shots to advance without taking damage). Yeah, he's worse in the long run, but he still has a myriad of shit to go with anyway, so it's not like they completely took away everything he had.
There's more to him than the guns, and you really don't know exactly what the developers intended to have him do in the first place. Though, looking at how other characters are designed in their gameplay, they're insanely based around the portrayal. And as said, he's a mercenary that's not only good with guns, but good in close quarters too, which seems to be where they were going.