Hello Grapz and welcome to the official forums. I am WyomingMyst and one of the forum MVPs here. I don’t represent Blizzard but I like to think of myself as one of the more passionate members of our community and I work to help solve issues for many players so that they can enjoy Overwatch bettter. I did take the time to read your post and found it to have a lot of constructive feedback. I think there is a growing divide between have a good causal time playing Overwatch, versus of trying to do your best and win every game possible. There have been many good solutions that have since helped improve that and there are a lot more to come, but the problem does remain in some capacity, and in my personal opinion, may never completely go away.
First, let me apologize for the really bad experiences you encountered with others who were clearly using abusive chat. That is not acceptable behavior and if you encounter such communication, please remember to report them using the in-game report tool. Also remember to take advantage of the available self-moderation tools you have access to including muting that player’s voice and text chat in the social menu, blocking them from ever communicating with you again, and use the Avoid as Teammate tool which you can assign to three players who you do not want to be paired up with on your team for up to seven days each (which is often good enough to keep them from showing up again for most players). Granted I wish these tools never had to be used when playing a good game like Overwatch, but its better to have them during the times you encounter a disruptive player.
While I see the novelity in your theory that having large-scale brawl modes would improve a more causal experience, I am going to have to burst that bubble now as Overwatch is not designed to handle a lobby more than 12 players. Game Director Jeff Kaplan had this to say on that subject.
What he means by this is that hero designs, map designs, textures, lights, shadows, effects are all designed to meet within a certain minimum system requirement for all compatible PCs, Xbox 1/X/S consoles, PlayStation 4/5 consoles, and even the Nintendo Switch. (And before anyone says it, yes there have been bugs that ended up loading more AI bots than the maximum 12-player slot, but those would cause server crashes.) So while your idea is not a bad idea by any means, its one I would not expect to see happen any time soon.
Now I understand your desire to have a more causal experience, but I also noticed that you mentioned you left around the time Doomfist was released as a hero, well since then there have been some pretty fun modes and features that have come out that I would greatly encourage you to try.
First is Deathmatch, which is a brawly 8-player FFA mode where you simply need to score up to 20 final blows to win the match. Yeah it can often bring out a lot of fierce competition, but I would not call it “Competitive” unless you choose to make it that way in your own experience. I myself spent countless hours in Deathmatch often finding ways to enjoy myself rather than be truely concentrated on winning the match. For example, I have won at least one round of Deathmatch using every hero (except Echo but that is because she is relatively new and I don’t play Deathmatch nearly as much these days because I am focused mostly on Competitive). I also found that Deathmatch can be a fun way to prank other players. In any case, its a great mode when you are on your own and just want to play Overwatch in your own way, no matter what that way is.
Another cool feature that has come out recently is the Looking for Group Tool, which you will find just below the play cards on the main “play” screen. This handy tool allows you to gather teammates or join a forming team to play Overwatch on the terms you guys like. Now forming up a full six-stack may mean longer queue times (though this is not so bad for non-Competitive modes), but you can often enjoy any game mode with new friends on any terms you want.
Finally, the ultimate causal experience for me is the newly implemented Workshop features for custom games. There you can have fun with Overwatch in a wide variety of user-created game modes and activities. Some amazing ways to play Overwatch have come out with the Workshop ranging from 12 Hogs, One Hole (basically everyone plays Roadhog and can only use Hook or Whole Hog while on the Ilios Map) to Mini-Overwatch (heroes start really tiny in size but grow as they deal damage and kills). So be sure to check out the Game Browser if you are looking for some crazy chaotic fun.
I would also like to point out that Overwatch 2 is going to be delivering some really awesome PVE experiences that will help cater to the causal play environment you are looking for. There is going to a comprehensive story mode that dives deep into the story of Ovewatch, but more importantly there is going to be all new “Hero Missions” which is going to be offering dozens if not hundreds of fun missions for you to dive into and enjoy Overwatch’s existing and new maps and heroes in ways you never even thought of. I encourage you to take time and watch the Blizzconline panel “Behind the Scenes of Overwatch 2” to see more of what I am talking about.
Again, I understand the need for a more causal experience and I don’t want to divert you from away from Quick Play for no reason, but make sure you are aware of some new ways that are available to play that can make your experience in Overwatch a little more fun. This is good feedback overall and I do hope your experience playing Overwatch will be better than the examples you have given.