Maybe I'm unlucky but I wouldn't call it "98%" from my experiences. Several games I got grief kicked just before the game ended. It is very rare for me to have ANY friendly fire damage, I'm prompt with respawning people (especially if they died near where I happen to be), and I contribute to the team objectives in a more-than-fair way usually.

Once the game ends I'm more than 50% of the time kicked, preventing continued games with the same people. If this happens I like to THINK that the host is just trying to make room for a friend. There's clearly a different error message that comes up if the host quits instead, so it can't be that.

Most lobbies people don't talk to each other except via typing and the squad-statement/emote systems.

Lots of sweaty lobbies and gamers out there even on the Challenging and below difficulties.

The ultimate fix is to host my own games and be the one in control of who gets kicked. But if everyone thought that way then no one would play with randoms.

Point is my experience is HD2 has a fairly toxic community. But I agree with your sentiment that if everyone is friendly and having fun, it's a fully immersive experience 100%.

All it takes is one person to ruin the game. The worst of that IMO is an immature host trying to laugh at someone's misfortune kicking them after 30+ minutes of a game just before they can actually claim the rewards from their hard earned efforts.