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I like it, in practice its pretty fun to game your action economy around the gun options, the reload options, and firing. It makes it feel different from other classes, but still feels pretty powerful.
Here's a quick exploration of a particular set of guns (Double Barrel Musket and Double Barrel Pistol) and their action economy I just wrote over on enworld:
Shoot, Reload, Shoot + Shoot, Reload, Shoot + Reload, Reload, Shoot + Shoot, Reload, Shoot -- this pattern means you only miss one of your -5 'second attacks' to reload for four rounds of combat (the second one you would lose is being displaced into round 5, and its been fairly rare for combat to go that long.)
If you wanna get real fancy (and gamble a bit) you can take the Risky Reload feat at 2, and then use it on round 3 to get that attack back as well by replacing the first reload with a Risky Reload, then reloading and firing as normal with the following two actions, then doing the same the following round, so it looks like this:
Shoot, Reload, Shoot + Shoot, Reload, Shoot + Risky Reload, Reload, Shoot + Risky Reload, Reload, Shoot
Granted, it breaks if you miss either risky reload, but its also your first shot on each of those turns, so that isn't too likely to happen that often so its probably a worthwhile usage. Now if we pick another reload feat up, or have one we like from one of the class paths we can substitute some of those bare reloads as well. I'd actually be tempted to use a double barrel pistol instead, smaller damage, but then it synergizes with the Pistolero path better, and you can demoralize/create a diversion when you reload (and get some other cool bonuses), technically you can do that with the musket but some of the later class path features are useless to you. The musket is better for a sniper, who can take cover and hide on reload, and increases that first turn damage which is neat.
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Yea, I prefer the gunslinger being the class whose niche is the reload mechanic.Meanwhile, I think that it undercuts the system's potential.
They used the playtest survey's results to define the target for their design. Not everyone could end up happy with it. Only the majority.
It is how they fine-tune PF2.
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Generally, I would say that Swashbuckler won't compete with the heavy hitters damage-wise, but also that it shouldn't be expected to. Rather, though it falls behind them in the DPR race, it provides the benefit of multiple roles in a single package, making it a weirdly flexible support martial. I'd actually say it's closer to a martial counterpart to the Bard than anything else.
The key to using one effectively seems to be stylistically supporting your party, with the flexibility to fill whatever role they need on any given turn. A lot of thought goes into when and how to use panache, and when to hang onto it to increase your success rates at other actions; I'd say that most styles can benefit from the Swashy holding panache for Derring-Do, goading enemies into attacking so they can punish the fools with style, and dropping a Finisher whenever it'll finish her target off.
The thing that matters most is learning when to do what, really. Battledancer wants to fascinate troublemakers before their turn, to protect their squishier allies, but their real support silliness comes online when they get Leading Dance and can basically take over enemy placement for the GM (slight exaggeration ;3); they also synergise nicely with defensive builds, due to the fascination. Wits can debuff their target for the mage and easily Aid their friends, increasing the entire party's effectiveness. And so on, it's not that hard to see how the other styles can support the team. This has the unfortunate effect of making their relative performance hard to gauge, though, since "their" effect tends to be spread out as a non-standard party buff.