Probably not, some people have mentioned that there's no real depiction of a sniper rifle in any of the movies or possibly in any other spin off material.
I think the sniper rifle model isn't ported from anything so it's probably a wholey original model.
The way I see it, different people just expect something different from MB2 all the time. Some want to play for objectives, kills, whatever while others just want to joke about and have fun.
And I don't think it's surprising that some don't take MB2 seriously anymore seeing that Open mode has...
I think the level of complexity of melee combat is very much in a perfect position as to how much attention should be given to a relatively smaller mechanic in the game.
While I do think it could do with some buffs after it got nerfed with the longer cooldown, new abilities like weapon...