It used to be better than the Assault Rifle, then we boosted the AR. At the time we were thinking about what should be done with the XL70 and the HPFA and we had the problem where we were having to leave AR and FN FAL down a level to make room for the HPFA and XL70.
So we raised the AR to a reasonably competitive level, FN FAL needs a bit more still, and the other two will be removed from being craftable. I'm sure they will be boosted and made available in faction scenarios for high ranking members of NPC factions, but they won'tbe generally available.
The problem with any encounter based system is the amount of encounters that occur on the server. A massive amount happen, so if anything comes from them then you get flooded by them.