This is a great post.
I completely agree regarding needing to watch replays to see your impact. For example, I often watch replays of games I play as Brig, and I notice so many things had a big impact that I’d not noticed while I played.
For instance, I just watched the replay of a match, and in just a single fight I noticed that between Rally armor and some repair packs I threw on top of proccing inspire, I’d actually saved the lives of three teammates that I did not originally know I’d saved. What I had originally missed is basically that two teammates who had armor on them from me had gotten burst down an amount that would’ve killed them if they’d not had the armor. Another teammate got saved by repair pack healing, but I’d simply not noticed it because I’d turned away right after throwing it. On top of all that, there was a fourth teammate that I had known at the time I’d saved with a repair pack in that same fight. And I also stunned the enemy Reaper out of his ult. So I’d been aware initially that I’d gotten a good bit of value in the fight, but it was only upon watching the replay that I realized the full extent to which I’d basically carried the fight—saving four teammates from death and then stunning a Reaper ult.
I find it particularly satisfying to watch replays where I played Brigitte, for this exact reason: I notice so much more of what I did than I initially noticed, in a way that doesn’t happen nearly so often on other heroes.