Polaris has always been problematic- in PvE it was underwhelming, as it had chaotic knockback that made it particularly hard to use without damaging team members and losing damage from better planned attacks, while in PvP it suffered the exact opposite issue wherein it worked well for support, damage, everything. Polaris was not a skilled weapon either, whereas guns like the alchemers are as good as the gunner using them, polaris was always just polaris. This makes it noob friendly, but still kind of... Bad.

The change has fixed all of this. Less damage makes it start out worse, and higher shot speed makes it ramp up much better with skill. The other handgun changes work well to support this new style of play, a more fluid and aggressive approach that doesn't rely on spam. It was a nerf in terms of damage, so the lockdown issues have been largely rectified, as the faster shot speed is going to greatly hinder your spam as well.

Personally, the polaris changes were my favorite part of the balancing tweaks.