Can't read the whole thread but I'll put in my 2 cents:
HACKING
I'm in the 'Deckers' were cool camp. I feel that wireless has cheapened the role of deckers and that breaking into a building and using a jack to hack should be the aim of a team and it's decker.
Yes wireless should have its place but it should be for casual decking and scouting, not for getting the job done. The thing is that this mimics the way wireless works in reality now. I'm not sure where people draw the conclusion that wireless MUST over-take wired at some point, seeming just because wired was 1st. In Australia right now the government is rolling out a fibre network for as part of a 50 year plan, meaning that they don't see wireless overtaking wired speeds in that timeframe. Aka, welcome to Shadowrun 2063
So yeah, use AR for casual hacking and wireless, and VR for hardcore cyber hacking and combat. Mechanically this could work as wireless gets 1 pass per round while wireless gets 2/4.
Technomancers.................... Can we get rid of them please? The concept of magical hackers is just dumb. I like them as Otaku(?) NPCs around events, but not as PCs. Particularly as they are dressed up as internet gods too much so players and GMs tend to treat them as such. Please, make the new edition after a new crash that kills them all off.
In the end they are still too complicated and still take too long to play. This is really the only part of the game that I think needs simplifying to any great degree. Does my comlink need 2 stats that are 90% of the time that are the same? Does it really need an additional operating system?
RIGGING/Vehicles
I feel like riggers got left out in the cold in 4th edition. I never really felt like I needed to do much outside of having the gunnery and pilot skills to at least be the best getaway driver you could be. Drones added a little bit more but again it always felt like to be a 'Drone Rigger' I might as well just be a 'Hacker'. Don't get me wrong I like that they use the same mechanics (streamlined) but I feel like there should be some major investment into being good at one or the other (i.e Expensive decks for deckers and expensive headware for riggers).
I don't believe that drones need to get cheaper, Riggers should just bring what they're prepared to lose to a run, with some sort of party agreement that so much of his gear is considered expenses. After all, a cyber-samurai can't bring multiple heavy machine guns firing from multiple angles to a fire-fight. Being able to should have its drawbacks.
I'd like a picture and fully fleshed out vehicle stats for ALL vehicles and drones. I want to know how many seats it has standard, how many doors, how much storage room, how modular it is.
I want the core book to spell out how much it's going to cost to fix my wrecked vehicle and how long.
I must admit, I like the abstract chase rules. I have no idea how people would use maps with vehicles doing different speeds over maybe 10s of kms, but yes make it clearer. If a vehicle is at long range, can I shoot it with my pistol? If I can than is it long range for my AK?
Should my light pistol be able to damage a tank? Right now it's not likely but if your pool is big enough you can. I'm not sure if this needs fixing.
MAGIC
Don't make the mistake of leaving advancement rules for adepts until Street Magic 5th comes out.................... Adepts powers need to be re-costed. 1 magic for one point of agility/str/bog/refl is outrageous when you can buy 6 points with less than 1 essence with bioware. Things should be a lot cheaper and just have caps, like you can't buy past rank 3/4 in most things.
Stun spells need to have more drain than anything else. It's easily justified, just make it that magic that leaves the body undamaged but renders people incapacitated is harder to master than magic that simply destroys. Problem solved. 'Slow' is just a bad bad spell. Don't make this mistake again.
Differentiate the types of magic more. No more Bear Shamans wearing suits and engaging in espionage (I'm generalizing, if you can justify it to your GM then more power to you).
I get the impression that stealth and stealth magic is for nought on the astral plane and in some cases makes it easier to be seen. This concepts needs to be revised or at least clarified. I feel that my ninja should have ways of masking himself in the astral plane, whether that be with equipment or simply knowing when the mage is looking the other way.
In general it feels like most characters are very weak against mental manipulation and mana spells. I think the baseline defense needs to be raised in some way.
BOOKS
Probably my biggest criticism of all of the Shadowrun versions is that the books read like they were put together by primary school kids. I shouldn't have to look in 4 different spots in 2 different books to get a firm understanding of how a skill works. I realize Shadowrun is more complex that a game like Pathfinder but improvements should be possible in this regard.
I touched on this briefly before but don't leave gaping holes in the core book to fill with splat books later on. I should be able to make every archetype with at least a few different options and be able to improve them and to participate in every aspect of the game by simply buying the core rulebook. All the supplements should do is add a richer experience.
Utilize ebooks, but don't just give us pdfs. Give us an evolving manual so that every time there is an eratta my pdf is updated. Give me the ability to download 1 pdf core rulebook that incorporates the other books as modules, but don't just slot them in as chapters. Put the new gear in the gear section, put the new metamagics in the magic section. That way all the relevant rules are in one spot. I think this would be an awesome marketing opportunity. Still have paper books for the purists. Give me something that fits the 21st century.
RULES
Keep dice pools and keep the static target number. Work out how big you want dice pools to be at certain stages of the game and design it around those goals. People with 30 dice pools ruin the game and inevitable the GM scales everything accordingly. This makes generalists not worth playing.
Have stats contribute X, skills X and everything else X so that we get pools maxing out at 15 or 18. The effect of stats may need to be 1/2ed for instance.
Combat modifiers are another area where simplification is needed. Do we really need 5 range increments? Do we really need 4-5 different types of artificial sight? Well maybe, but it just seems that at the moment everyone gets ultrasound for 99% of situations and a light on their gun for the other 1%. Personally, I think if you want to see around thermal smoke then maybe you need astral perception. Otherwise suck up the modifiers. What about 1 range table? Whether you're shooting a pistol or a sniper rifle, 5ms is point blank, 25m short, 50m med, etc. Therefore at 1km, you'll get -4 with your sniper rifle but at least it can still shoot that far and most of the time your 1st shot by-passes reaction, so it won't make that much difference. Also, do the 4 pistol types need different range tables? Considering they're basically the same, making them all the same can't make that much difference.
I like the purchasing/rarity rules but they could be simpler. Have some examples of what happens when you carry certain weapons/gear in certain zones. No-one takes rocket launchers into bars, not even in the barrens, unless they want to use it that turn
What do contact stats prove? Besides fixers and selling/buying stuff they just seem like qualitative guides that cost karma. Can I make them better? How do I get more?
That's about it for now