I am setting out to change your mind. I say this up front because, hopefully, you will be less resistant to honesty than coercion. Most of the debating I do with people about this game is because I think of things in a completely different way than most.
Most seem to regard mechs as either giant soldiers, or only in the terms described in canon. The roles of the mechs are as defined by a small game company who thought giant stompy robots with axes and guns were kewl. I don't disagree with that sentiment. And who doesn't dig giant robots? But these were not military geniuses. I am not either. But I know enough to look for analogs of mechs in the modern world to see what military geniuses think they should be doing.
Some have suggested that mechs are like bombers and fighters in WWII. The assaults being the bombers, and that they needed protection from enemy fighters. The lights and mediums being the fighters, and the heavies... well it goes off track here because this comparison is flawed.
Mechs are analogous to ships. Think of the role a submarine plays in naval warfare. Scouting, hit and run, harassing (and hopefully sinking) larger ships, disappearing after a single shot only to reappear and shoot again. Sounds like a light mech, doesn't it.
Frigates are smaller than destroyers. They are designed to protect larger ships, and perform anti-submarine duties. naturally they also get used for basic attack and defend scenarios. Sounds a lot like mediums.
Destroyers are larger and have a primary role of defending larger ships against attacks by smaller, faster ones, like frigates and submarines. Originally called "torpedo-boat destroyers" it was shortened to just, destroyers. Many have become the primary surface combatants of the navies of the world. This fits nicely with Heavies.
Cruisers are the largest of ships. They have the most displacement and exist solely to lay down some hurt, in the most efficient manner possible. (Battleships and Battlecruisers are no longer in main use by the world's navies, and in fact only three countries use cruisers at all) This is obviously the Assaults.
So if we play the mechs to the roles of ships, we should, in theory, be an efficient, powerful, battlegroup. You will note that the role of a cruiser is not to draw fire away from the rest of the group. Nor is it to lead the charge. The role of the cruiser is to fire on targets, while smaller ships see to its protection.
So when I am confronted by angry voices saying that the most angering sight in the game is a barely damaged Atlas, that the job of the assault is to be a laser-sponge, that the entire point of an assault is to die in a "loud, grotesque, military manner", (extra internets if you get that reference), I reflect on two things. First, that the person saying this, while passionate and well-versed in the game's lore, probably hasn't looked at ships.
Second, that they don't realize that a mech is not a soldier, it is an expensive piece of hardware. A captain's responsibility is their very expensive ship. If this game were as real as some of you think, having your mech destroyed would be worse than hiding or running, despite what the lore says.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_ships
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