I don't know about out of hand, but you're definitely onto something in general. I refuse to use anything other than a Pulse Rifle in Crucible, and it makes me nearly unstoppable. I think there are maybe two or three other Pulse Rifles that can beat mine, and it's rare that more than one person at any given time has one. It's not as bad as when Suros Regime, The Last Word, and Thorn dominated all the things at all times by themselves, but Bungie has yet again created another imbalance with their across-the-board nerfing of other things.

So you're stuck with pulse rifles being the only good gun. All the other new guns I'd have trashed in any other version of this game.

I do use pulse rifles mostly, but I have since TDB. My old Time on Target has exactly the same roll as my new Hawksaw did, had the same RoF, etc. It was and still is a beast. I really noticed the decrease in Stability on PR's with the 2.0 update. My old PRs were lasers. Now they are still good, but slightly bouncier and stability is much more important of a stat to keep them useful.

I was consistently getting out shot by a guy with Hung Jury tonight vs my Nirwen's Mercy. Things all in all are very close. Auto's could still use a damage buff up close. Hand cannons seem perfect, deadly short, but meh at range. Scouts are great at range. I think the range on Pulses cold be nerfed, but I'd keep the stability the same.

There will always be a meta. Crucible even more so. Once people find even the slightest edge, that's what they'll go with.

Used an Auto Rifle primarily in Crucible and I've done pretty well for myself routinely since TTK. Ninety nine percent of the time, dying is less the guns fault than anything else.

I think half the issue is expectations. We started in a reality very different than the one now, and that experience as the "true" one affects everything. Deviations from that norm are the more glaring.

Aim assist, stability, predictable recoil. I get 3 burst kills routinely at mid to long range. It's amazing.

Feels very different in IB and (I presume) trials as they do the power scaling thing, so it's not as sure of a thing... But when it's all evened out it's crazy good.

I honestly really like crucible balance right now, though - if anything - I think hand cannons were nerfed too hard and they should remove the penalty to aim assist when ADS-ing from them now that range and overall accuracy have been reduced.

Anyway, my anecdata is that, depending on how I play, I have had success with every type of weapon in the crucible. I think you're seeing so many pulse rifles nowadays because the vendor IB one had a nearly perfect roll for PvP, whereas you almost certainly had to get lucky with a roll for any other type of weapon. My top options in each category right now are:

Pulse Rifle: Red Death, or Nirwen's Mercy (vendor edition). Honorable mention: The Villany (vendor edition).
Autorifle: Zarinaea-D (armsday from 3 weeks ago version). Honorable mention: Paleocontact (needs a good roll).
Scout Rifle: Jade Rabbit, Suros 43-Dis (armsday from last week version with Hidden Hand or four weeks ago with outlaw), Not Like the Others (needs a good roll).
Hand Cannon: Hawkmoon, Eyasluna (crucible reward, needs a good roll). An argument could be made for Zaouli's Bane as well (raid drop from Oryx).

So of the best in class weapons for each primary type, only Pulse Rifles have top notch vendor versions, making them the most common by far. I am surprised that we don't see more Hawkmoons since Xur sold it not too long ago, but in general, the easy access to incredible rolls for pulse rifles means most people will probably be using those.