The times I have played Gold without friends have been mostly interesting when searching R/R/G. On PS4, randoms were initially obsessed with Sandstorm/Outlaw thinking it was faster by camping the roofs. Then after the "Easy/Gold Setup" post on reddit, people switched to Outlaw/Zero. It's practically the old White/Geth/Gold where everyone camps in the far left side of the map. Low levels are all in that setup aplenty. Anyway, I hope Outlaw receives a huge buff so there is more variety in the community.
As for consumables in public lobbies, I personally don't use them. From hosts with pita Internet connections to frequent game crashing, I don't blame anyone for not wanting to use them. Luckily, I rarely crash, but it has happened. Running into hosts with pita connections on the other hand... :???: