Optimal play versus springtrap is to not interact with his power.

SpringMyTrap

Title. I spent almost two weeks playing as and against springtrap and this is the conclusions I've come to.

Using doors and cameras against Springtrap is completely optional.

The optimal play versus this killer is to pay attention, read UI clues and just do gens against huntress who makes up for the lack of ability to properly 2 tap people or camp hooks with mobility and meh stealth.

Cameras are incredibly thematic feature and door traversal with a threat of grabs sounded like something that would create a unique macroplay map control gameplay where instead of finding & zoning survivors around the map you are moving around the map and trying to cut them off, while they use cameras to ensure their safety, but this just doesn't happen.

Doors are not versatile enough to be used more than once-twice per match.

You do not really need to make quick map rotations often against any killer, let alone Springtrap. Most of the time you are already positioning yourself around the map in such ways to save time because it is more optimal anyway. Most of the time you do not need to cross the entire map back and forth because it's either just as fast to get there normally and way safer or you are already where you need to be.

This just makes them extremely underutilized despite being very good in their niche which also leads to Springtrap's supposed counterplay to them being absolutely useless.

Cameras are practically obsolete because you can make up for them by just using baseline counterplay

You can use - footsteps sounds, exiting animation, door sound, panel flickering. Their main application (stealth dispel) is incredibly situational because you need to accurately guess when Springtrap exists a different door than you, find him and dispel stealth from him which all takes time and he often sneaks up on people in a matter of 5-10 seconds. And he doesnt, he just goes back into the door, nullifying camera value.

Speaking of springtrap's counterplay to doors and cameras. He can hear a beep sound when survivors use the door or deplete battery, but he cannot tell which door they used or travelled to unless he was already camping inside the door which is one of the many situations when survivors ARE NOT GOING TO USE THE DOORS ANYWAY. He can throw the axe to block a door to be used but that means giving up the power for something that survivors can make up for by just going closer to another door or teleporting to it. This barely makes a marginal difference at this point.

Interacting with doors / cameras more often than 1-2 times per trial on gen rotations as a survivor or trying to shut that down is a trap.

You dont have a reason to use doors more often than that.

You dont need to use cameras for anything but finding the generator. UI clues (chase/carrying) are enough to make sure it's safe.

You cannot use axe to counter any of that. You can't camp doors waiting for the "beep" warning outside (you'd have to gamble which door the go to and they could see you on cameras) or for yellow aura inside (they wont use doors when springtrap is nowhere to be seen).

Normally, killers that give survivors counter mechanics have something in their kit that warrants the existence of these mechanics.

• Xenomorph's turrets are a vital part of countering it suddenly crawling out of the tunnels and are imperative as a way to extend chase and keep distance vs dangerously oppressive power. Both killer and survivor are constantly interacting with turrets and it's one of the resources survivors need to constantly utilize to keep up with the killer.
• Singularity's EMPs are INCREDIBLY vital to countering his map presence and catch up and while singularity himself does not interact with EMPs a lot, they create a necessary pushback to his ability which encourages and rewards him for using the power correctly - multitasking and having as many infections as he can.
• Sadako's tapes in her original iteration were mostly optional - you only used them to remove condemn which didnt build up easily on its own and unless she utilized a very aggressive strategy to apply it, you did not have to use them whatsoever because the risk was not worth the reward.
• Sadako 2.0 and 3.0 has a lethal punishment for survivors that neglect tape management. They must interact with her power and create pushback to her mobility and remove condemn because otherwise it will stack on them and give Sadako a chance to kill them. Later iterations of Sadako's both had mechanics to make people interact with tapes and punish them if neglect that but also enabled a degree of agency in applying it nonetheless herself.
• Plague has a power that can freely injure survivors across the map and attempt to rapidly snowball them if they refuse to heal. Even though I think she falls under same category as Springtrap - it's more optimal to avoid interacting with her power than let her have it, I still think her power is still MORE FUNCTIONAL because Plague is capable of executing extremely oppressive strategies that can force people to cleanse or just lose the game on spot. Healthy or not, it's a thing.

There is an ongoing tendency with power budgets of these killers one way or the other exceeding the power budget of the regular killer because instead of their powers having inherent countermechanics/counterweights to them, they give these counters in the hands of the survivors that they have to use in conjunction with default mechanics.

Xenomorph/Singularity has extremely oppressive chase / map abilities that would be completely unfair if not for a counter mechanic limiting or balancing these abilities.

Sadako has a passive threat of condemn survivors need to get rid of by disabling TVs and carrying cursed tapes around the map because only the first TV disable (taking tape) does not apply a stack of condemn.

Plague gives hits for free but she also heals survivors for free and her power gets more manageable when survivors can afford a mistake.

Now Springtrap. His power is just not doing any of that.

His ability does not have even remotely enough power or oppressiveness to warrant usage of even pretty situational mechanics. It does not create situations where survivors would be incredibly pressured if they weren't using the doors or cameras. There is no active or passive mechanic, no playstyle, nothing works.

Undetectable effect is not long or persisting enough to justify using cameras to dispel it. It gets activated for a short moment when you cant possibly know where Springtrap is and removing it becomes irrelevant by the time you find him.

Doors are not worth using because this killer barely has more map presence than average modern killer. And even if his map presence was unreasonably high (like singularity without EMPs) then survivors would rather have the ability to block the doors like they can stop teleports with EMPs rather than having to go through doors themselves.

Chase power is not a topic of this discussion because it's the only thing that at least works on a fundamental level.

Is that actually intentional? Is If so, this is incredibly sad.

SpringMyTrap

Also even dredge is more capable of getting grabs on sheer basis of being able to randomly teleport to the locker survivor needs to lock and they lock lockers A LOT even though the reward for "locking lockers" is way lower than it is for going through doors because of how much momentum doors can preserve for survivors.