Meh. Laggers have always had the advantage in VC:MP, this is not new, it's the same in SA:MP, MTA, etc... However, 0.4 doesn't seem to be very good at handling laggers in comparison to 0.3zR2. The sync is definitely better now for low pingers but when it comes to laggers, it has become insanely harder to hit them. I was thinking about this the other day, maybe we just can't have both. Maybe we just can't have a sync that works best for both low ping players and laggers. We either have a good and precise sync for low pingers or we have a different kind of sync that makes it easier to hit laggers but in comparison low ping fights won't be as precise ( I believe this was the case in 0.3zR2 ). I don't really know if this is how it works technically, but this is the impression I have.
One mistake you're making though is that you're taking VC:MP as a competitively viable game/mod. If you're going to do that you're in for a world of pain and frustration, because VC:MP will never be fair. There will always be players with higher pings and they'll always have the advantage over players with a low ping. There's nothing we can do about that. Other games solve this by grouping players of the same region together and having them play on a server on that region, but since VC:MP already has small userbase we can't afford to be splitting the userbase like that and make it even smaller.
players haven't realized that the fire-and-forget shotgun switching style is unreliable now.
I find it to be just as reliable as it was back in 0.3zR2, just not against laggers. Low ping fights work pretty much like they used to when it comes to shotgun/stubby, the sync's even better imo. But when it comes to laggers, I can barely can hit anyone >150 ping. I don't know if this is just me, I usually have 58/60 ping, but I don't think so, I've heard other low pingers complain aswell. Just the other day in LW I spawned in DT as one of those green whores and was fighting with a group against 1 guy. There was 3 of us against this 1 cop with a shotgun that just kept jumping 0.3x style. He kept doing this repeatedly while running in and out of he pharmacy. While in the middle of the fight, he had the time to stop, type !heal and jump just as a stubby shot hit him, making him lose hp but not falling. This kept happening during all the fights with him. And he wasn't having fps lagg, he wasn't warping, his movements were smooth. As I was fighthing I remember thinking that he must've had like 300 or 400 ping but when I checked the scoreboard, I noticed he only had 200 ping, which is not even that high by 0.3z standards but it really makes a big difference in 0.4.