Standard VSH servers have their own problems (looking at you, VSH2) and bhop is one of the things that sets the LR apart from its mainstream cousin.
I agree that VSH2 has problems with it being imbalanced but it is a lot more balanced than the LR counterpart which heavily favours Hales who know how to bhop properly. I don't think bhop is what sets it apart from the normal gamemode as being on the jailbreak maps with a massive variety of situations makes it unique enough to be fun to play when no one is bhopping.
Hale easily outpaces the other classes even without bhop, all bhop really does is buff the Horsemann a bit and give some of the other classes some new movement options (bhopping as a trolldier, for example, is quite fun).
Pyro, Sniper, Scout, Demo, and even Engi with Eureka can easily evade most Hales if they have the right timing (which is a far easier mechanic to understand and learn than bhopping) when Hale doesn't have bhop. Hale can outpace other classes but as a team it is quite easy to allow these classes to get into their optimal positions with Pyro being able to control Hales movement quite well. As for the new movement options, they don't add much to the classes that they don't already since these classes that are usually bhopping have tools which allow them to move around freely.
The Horsemann in the LR isn't in the greatest spot right now because when he teleports he gets a free kill if the victim is unfortunate enough to be in the air due to a very fun glitch and also he cannot climb walls with his melee (in the current version) so finds it very difficult to kill people above him. He
is too weak when he doesn't bhop but this is mostly because of not having access to using his melee to climb walls but I feel like this would be less noticeable if reds couldn't bhop either.
Pyro, which can airblast and try and instakill the hale with map hazards.
Heavy, can camp with an engineer and bhop off the knockback if he gets hit.
Engie, who's whole point is to camp anyway.
And sniper, see above.
Hale can quite easily jump away from map hazards and bhopping just makes it more difficult for Pyros to get the opportunity in the first place.
Heavies, Snipers, and Engies camping and delaying is what makes the LR boring and hated among players who die early in the round (admittedly, medics being able to revive would make it less boring to wait but they often get targeted at the start of the round anyway).
For newer players, bhopping is very infuriating as it seems very unfair
(and it is, Hales who bhop win most of the time while Hales who don't lose most of the time) and trying to avoid Hale often makes players shout at them in chat to stop camping/delaying, and leads to them breaking some sort of rule most of the time leading the VSH LR to be by far the least intuitive experience for any newcomers.
even if the hale have alot of hp cause some maps are big that make the hale hard to get the reds n sum it to that some class can pack a punch that can knockback hale farther away like the pyro airblast n the fully charged sniper rifle that can knockback the hale very far when he super jump.
Without bhop, Hale can travel long distances with or without super jump quite easily, however, it's not getting to the reds that's the issue as most of them just bhop away and the Hale has to chase them around the map always being slower than them
(This happens more than you would think as most people who get randomly picked to be Hale do not know how to bhop). Hale can keep his momentum through sniper shots and can easily kill them if no one is helping them. If the team is working together, then of course Hale will struggle more but that's what makes it fun to play - sticking together and helping each other and dying as a team is much better than it is now.
Being left at spawn to die (while half you team starts their bhop to avoid getting killed by the Hale at the start), then being killed because no amount of knockback can stop Hale from getting straight to you if he is bhopping if you aren't pyro, and then having to wait 10 minutes for the round to end isn't fun and is why most players groan when VSH is picked.
I love the VSH LR but a lot of people don't and that is the issue.
