Right. I guess it depends on how you define combat monster. If you define it as someone who purposely doesn't do anything other than combat, you can't then bemoan that they can't do anything else. But if you're just defining it as someone who is first and foremost geared towards melee and ranged combat, then there is still easily room to slap on an additional skill or two or four (Intimidate, Infiltration, Shadowing, Hardware, heck, even the various Piloting, etc.) that gives them purpose in non-combat situations.
I agree. My current fighter guy is a troll with 6 edge, 9 reaction, can fix anything that's not a computer, and can survive in hostile environments.
It's just he doesn't do any of those things exceptionally well. He's kind of a generalist, except he'll never sling spells or go astral, nor can he hack anything. Meanwhile, since he's got some `ware, certain folk on here would say that he's going to have his body hacked from time to time.
Let's break down the elements of a run.
Meet
Recon
Legwork
Execution
Payment
Aftermath
For the purposes of this argument, we'll assume the close quaters specialist and the fire support specialist are condensed into the ubiquitous "Combat Monster".
As it stands, the CM can, depending on build, touch a few of those run elements. If he's got some good contacts, he can do a bit of legwork. If he's got some good infiltration and perception, he can touch some recon. If he's got some charisma, he can be of some use during the meet and payment portions beyond being a bulletcatcher. However, a combat monster *can't* do all of those things with a single build. He just doesn't have the BP.
Meanwhile, a hacker can cover all of those aspects. He can hack the Johnson's commlink during the meet. He can browse the matrix around the scene and find some interesting nodes, and open up cameras and mic feeds for recon. He can hit up shadowgroups and hacker databases for legwork. He can at the very least, provide matrix defense during execution, and more then likely will be a key component in bypassing maglocks and building security. He can set up anonymous accounts and split up nuyen after verifying payment, and will likely be one of the few characters unaffected should the team have to lay low after the run.
So the hacker can cover every single aspect without having to spread his skills and BP thin, covers the Matrix better then any other archetype, and now, as a subset of execution, should combat break out, he should be on par with a combat monster? Bullshit. Let every archetype have their own spotlight. If every 4 or 5 sessions a good combat breaks out, let the monster have his day.