Fair enough.
That maybe a stretch too far.
Though, I can't imagine that, despite the statement, the walking fortress nerf was completely unrelated to its use with counterstrike and the bolters.
And despite the tenuous nature of that analogy, reentry is working as intended. While there is no tooltip, you are supposed to get new potions and "lives" every time you enter a match, whether it is at the start or in the middle.
The same thing could be achieved to a larger extent by standing next to Horrors. That has been around since the beginning, and they are on more than one zone. It seems like if it was an issue it would have been resolved long before bolters were a thing.
Yes, if you are just joining a game you should have all your lives and potions. If you run out of lives and potions, leave, then rejoin, you are no longer a new player to that game session, so it is unfair that you get the advantages of a new player.
Personally, I think it should track your lives lost and potions used and not refund them to you on rejoin. It can track XP gained before you left then pick up where you started when you rejoin, so why not lives and potions? I don't think it is working as intended, but it really isn't all that big of a deal, so whatever.