Are Street Samurai obsolete?, well, are they? Options

[JonathanC]

To be honest, I'm not seeing a lot of great reasons to play one, and I certainly don't see any reasons to bring one along on a run. They're difficult to heal with magic, they set off cyberware scanners at security checkpoints, and due to essence loss, they aren't really all that pleasant to be around. So why put up with them?

Adepts can easily equal the skill of a street sam in melee or ranged combat, and with smartlinked contact lenses, they've finally caught up to the one advantage Sams had in 3rd edition.

If you need heavy weapons, well...there's nothing stopping an adept from carrying a Panther XL cannon, or you could save yourself the storage space and just hire a competent combat mage.

Most of the other benefits of cyberware/bioware can be approximated with equipment. The only real exceptions are minor combat buffs like platelet factories (yes, that's a nice buff, but you can live without it quite well). Internal air tank? Just wear a breath mask and oxygen on your next run. Cyber spurs? Why bother when you can have Critical Strike and Killing Hands?

Is there anything that a Street Sam can do that a Magician or Adept can't do better, more quietly, and with greater chance of success?