I know this topic gets talked about way too much, but I have a pretty weird input setup and wanted to share my perspective.
Here is my breakdown of hours across inputs so you get where I'm coming from:
Touchpad: ~700 hours (raw indie arena movement shooters)
Controller: ~250 hours (mostly MW2019, MW2, and Warzone)
Mouse: ~5 hours (literally just started trying it)
Because of that, my skill level is kind of funny. I’m actually good on a touchpad, average on a controller, and I suck on a mouse since I'm so new to it. But even though I'm still learning mouse, I still think a lot of mouse players who complain about aim assist are just making excuses.
Think about how normal, everyday casual matchmaking actually goes. Even with aim assist, average controller players still mess up their shots all the time. They panic, they over-correct, and there is still a human delay when it comes to actually pulling the trigger. RAA doesn’t magically turn a casual couch player into a perfect aimbot.
I know what people are gonna say—that at high levels of play, RAA is super strong and tracks instantly. And yes I know, at the top tier it's crazy when you have experienced controller players. But for the vast majority of normal lobbies, that's just not how it plays out.
A mouse is literally the most precise, 1:1 tool you can use. You have your whole arm and wrist to aim. It feels like ever since crossplay became a thing, it just became way too easy for mouse players to blame the game's software whenever they lose a fight instead of just admitting they missed. And don't get me wrong, sometimes it is simply because of RAA.
But if I can hold my own and get kills on a laptop touchpad against mouse users, a decent mouse player should easily be able to out-aim an average controller guy. Practice and positioning matter way more than whatever input device the other person is using. And even with only about 5 hours on mouse, I can already tell the difference of difficulty vs controller and especially touchpad.