And with the Contender he can shoot "without losing Burst" (since it's a B1 weapon...), or if you have more than one enemy ARO taget, then you use the Combi, splitting the Burst against up to 3 targets...
But remember the Shikami would also be at a -3 to shoot back through the nimbus, and a -6 if they're in cover, plus any visual modifiers they have (lots of Steel Phalanx units have ODD for example). It works very well if they have a weapon that is 0 or -3 in the 0-8 inch band, like a Sniper or a Missile Launcher, but not so well against a Boarding Shotgun, for example.
And also remember that Shikami has the lowest BS possible as HI. Even moderately trained troops (Zhanshi) get BS 13 when put into a HI suit, so Domaru and Shikami suits either cheaped* on targeting tech or they barely know how to reload their guns. * I'd like a car. No, please remove the AC, the heating, and the electric windows. What do you mean it costs extra to remove those? Fine, I'll pay the extra, don't want no fancy stuff. Back in my days we didn't get anti-spin and WE LOVED IT.
I think fluff-wise it probably has to do with being HONORABURU SAMURAI and spending far more time training in close combat than with ranged weapons.
Yeah, a number of factors. I don't think they wanted to make Haramaki have BS14 to keep it consistent that Haramaki are good shots compared to Domaru (but without considering the consistency with Zuyong (ex Terracotta) or Wu Ming) and it's like with Sun Tze V1 - BS12 is blatantly saving on points.
