When you say a blink of the eye, you mean slower than any other attacking class other than perhaps sniper?
Ah, so the offending items are banned in competitive play. That makes a lot more sense than anything else I could have imagined.
I rarely have seen anyone competitive not use a class/character/strategy because it is slightly boring, but the fact that he's not as good as a soldier in the niche he'd be used for does make a lot of sense.
So why does the class as a whole need to be nerfed? Why not just nerf the items that are too good?