Concealment should be re-implemented

"Cover protects you from threats. Concealment will distort or hide your signature, but will not stop a threat." -Unknown

It recently occurred to me that a large part of what separated Dead by Daylight as a horror experience from hide-and-seek with extra steps was the amount of concealment within the game. Ever since 'The Realm Beyond' graphical changes, an implied gameplay element of Dead by Daylight has been de facto removed with no substitute. The risk-reward of potentially avoiding the Killer but having no defense upon being found has resulted in a huge impact on the stealth gameplay that both Survivors and Killers could benefit from.

While the Backwater Swamp realm's reeds and grass were largely unaffected, corn stalks, bamboo, tall grass, and bushes on other maps have been massively reduced in density. Even knee-high grass is more sparse. Corn is useless unless there are several rows between a Survivor and the Killer. Bamboo on Yamaoka maps isn't dense enough to hide you aside from a small amount of tiles. Tall grass no longer exists in any variation. Bushes, outside of a handful cases (like nu-Haddonfield main building), arguably have no practical usage.

Killer-wise, these changes largely impacted Trapper and crouch-killers. Many maps now have "line of sight dead zones" where there isn't a way to conceal Ghost Face or Amanda Young's approach. Trapper is a nightmare to play as and is even more map-dependent than he was prior to the changes. Most bigger items, aside from keys and flashbangs/crackers, are easily seen and retrieved if dropped by Franklin's Demise or similar Killer add-ons. This removes the "searching" aspect of a dropped item that could either buy the Killer time or effectively removing an item for good. Additionally, if there's no hard-cover around, SWFs give easy call-outs as the Killer is in-view for a longer period of time.

Survivors have less places to hide. Killers are affected by Survivors getting a head start on chases. And again, the horror aspect of the game is hurt because a part of what makes something SCARY is the lack of guaranteed outcome. If you're in chase and you drop a pallet or vault a window, you know you'll make distance. If you're bearing down on a Survivor in an open field, you know you're going to get a hit. Hiding in what is essentially "plain sight" and it WORKING never stopped providing that gut-wrenching feeling that made your hands sweat. Finding and hitting a Blendette always gave that "gotcha!" moment. Lockers are the only tools now that effectively count as concealment (and cover from ranged Killer powers, technically), but just don't provide that same feeling in my opinion.

It would be wonderful if some of these changes could be reverted, or if we could glean some insight from the Game Design or Level Design teams on their thought process behind these changes. It would be a fascinating opportunity to learn their logic of map design and how it contributes to balance and achieving their ideal image of Dead by Daylight gameplay. In my personal opinion, some of these changes to concealment are a step backward but I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on the matter.