So being able to see bush wookies isn't going to vastly improve your kdr? With the flash hider, they're pretty tough to spot, especially playing hardcore mode.
You're probably right in reference to hardcore mode. Personally I'm not a fan of HC in BF4, I don't think the game was ever designed to be played like that, so I don't find it fun. If I want some serious 'hardcore' style gameplay, I'd probably hit up ARMA3.
Again, just an observation, in regular mode, I highly doubt turning off foliage is going to affect a person's KDR that much. I see so many players running around doing so many idiotic things, the least of their worries should be turning off some foliage just to give them some false sense of hope, as if it'll help them improve their gameplay any
I prefer to have my games looking as pretty as possible, and if I need to deal with some bush wookies, I figure out fun and intelligent ways to take them out as oppose to turning off some graphic setting. It's been working out pretty well for me so far.