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That's the problem, they're still balanced like how New Vegas and 3 balanced them.
Back in those game lasers had low damage (Compared to high level ballistic weapons), were hitscan, and had no recoil, while plasma weapons had comparatively massive damage, but fired projectiles and had low rate of fire.
Now, they're still like that, except that now you fire two shots from anything that isn't equipped with a Gyro barrel, a long barrel, and a recoil-compensating stock and you end up hitting the ceiling, it's ******** if you ask me.
And with the removal of skills, now there's really no reason not to use ballistic weapons, even if you like energy weapons better.
There's another big thing in favor of ballistic weapons over energy weapons: there's literally no way to silence or suppress the noise from energy weapons. You can't make a "suppressed marksman's laser rifle". You can put a suppressor on almost any ballistic weapon outside of shotguns, but suppressors for energy weapons are still a no-go.
Then again, that's what mods are for, I suppose.
I wouldn't think you'd need to silence a laser, what with it making bright flashy lights and firing a bright line that leads to you. Laser musket is goddamn great though, I got one from a legendary mongrel that does poison damage.
Because all energy has some amount of force behind it. Plasma is highly excited gas that has been super-heated and stripped of electrons, and it can pack quite a punch in concentrated amounts. Assuming you actually created a weapon that fires plasma with enough mass, velocity, and heat to cause mortal damage (and not just give them a light tan or singe their eyebrows off), it would likely have the same or slightly less recoil as a standard firearm of comparable size. A laser weapon on the other hand would not have recoil since photons don't really pack that much of a physical punch.
Really though, plasma weapons as we often imagine them are not feasible, since plasma dissipates very quickly on contact with the air, you'd only get a range of a few feet at best. However the plasma grenade is a concept that could definitely work, and plasma swords could have some potential.