It definitely is clunky, but I feel like if you look at designs fairly closely you can see some evolutionary jumps. Maybe not with some helmets like Hazop, but you can with others like Rogue and Recon.

Imo I kinda liked 4’s version of sprint. It was there, everyone had it, but it was limited and had a sort of cool down similar to other armor abilities. I do also like the gameplay of 5, with the other added Spartan abilities like slam and clamber; imo it made me feel like a lethal killing machine moving around the battlefield.