This is the kind of phrase that made me wish Sym3 was overly OP like every other rework. Because that sentence was true with Sym1, not Sym2. You are living proof that people still carry stances from release, even after the changes made her really good in other scenarios.
The reason why Sym at launch was only used for first point defense was not because she couldn’t protect the second point, or later stages of hybrid/escort maps. It was because TP was her only ultimate, and with your spawn being so close to the point, its benefit was minimal, thus you were playing with a hero that didn’t had an ultimate to swing the fight in your favor.
Shield Generator changed that. Hard. SG forced the enemy team to fight a tank’s worthy of extra HP (450), or deviate their attention seeking and destroying the SG before tackling the point. That’s a perfect catch 22 situation, because neither option is optimal.
Then, there is attack. Where, Sym1 had a lot of trouble because even if the team could escort her to the point, she could only carry 3 turrets in the pocket (not enough to lock the point down), and she literally had a beam range smaller than melee weapons (Reinardt, Winston, literal quick melee). Plus, on first point attack have the spawn advantage, and would barely benefit from an offensive TP, and by second point, the enemy spawn being so close means you had even less time to setup your defenses to prevent contesting.
Shield Gen, Photon Barrier and the turret buff of Sym2 changed that.
Shield Gen was possible to be placed outside the enemies’ fortress, forcing them to fight a much beefier team, or send someone out of safe grounds to break it, and risk them being picked in advance, or the other team pushing at the same time, fighting 6v5 in exchange for losing a fast charging ult.
Shield tanks are slow, which means if you want to approach relying on a Reinhardt or Orisa shield to protect the team until you are touching the point, it’s not uncommon that they have little shield left to protect the team once you are on the point itself. Photon Barrier allowed the team to move at walking speed while being protected from the front and you reach the point with a full main tank shield to fight on. That barrier was a lot more resilient that people gave credit, and I can count in my finger how many times I’ve seen it break because of damage instead of just hitting a wall.
Getting 6 turrets in the stash also was a godsend because once you escorted Sym into the point, she could immediately set up some defenses, and guarantee that no one coming back from the spawn would contest for too long. That was also a heavily unappreciated aspect of attack Sym2 because it’s seem as “winning more”, when it was perfectly possible that you could make a quasi-team kill, then someone stagger enough for reinforcements to arrive, and you ends up only taking one third of the point. Sym on attack ensured that almost always, when you get into the point and win the team fight, you will take the point because the enemy simply can’t contest anymore.
The place where Sym2 didn’t had footing was pro play, and that’s it. Mostly because her weak point was focused fire and coordination. Two things that basically define pro play. A pro team would not send a lone Tracer to seek a shield gen. They will simply overwhelm them with the extra health and not care about it (see that they do exactly that against Brigitte’s Rally). They would not linger around in spawn thinking about how to approach the defenses, thus, not letting Sym reset her turrets between fights. And definitely, they would not panic when she latches them with the beam, with full knowledge that they can simply click on her head and kill her faster than she could attain beam level 3.
Sym2 was perfectly fine for ladder play (maybe even a bit OP) in all ranks. She was lacking into pro play. But because Sym1 was so underwhelming after all the nerfs she received because of her dominance in beta, people kinda solidified that she is trash, and unless she becomes so OP it becomes mandatory, people will not give two thoughts about her. They wil try her out, not attain mastery of her kit after 5 matches, and never try her again.