Most weapons haven't had pictures for as long as I played Shadowrun.
I have read very few complaints about the Matrix and Rigging, and there's only a handful of matters that have confused people enough to require writer clarification, so errors aside, I do not understand the claims that Matrix and Rigging don't work. Especially when you compare Rigging to SR5 CRB, I actually consider the claim unbelievable. Just like the claim that the errata didn't have any significant impact.
I can understand criticism, but not falsehoods.
First, it would seem that you have been playing the latest few Shadowrun Editions regularly and have a good understanding of them. That is excellent, and I am jealous of you. Sadly if you are returning from older editions, or are heaven forbid a completely new player, the CRB, even after errata is at best a tough read. If the intention of the book was to cater to only experienced players, then I take full responsibility for the misunderstanding. If this is meant to make the game more widely available to a new audience, it is a complete failure. I introduced it to my gaming group which has a number of RPG/tabletop/board gaming veterans, but none who had ever done anything with SR other than me, and they were/are baffled. I did my best to explain it and ask questions on the forums, but I admit that I too am often baffled by the rules. Luckily for me (and me alone), the quarantines put our planned play sessions on hold. I had hoped that I would see further errata and maybe firing line before things got back to normal and that they would smooth things out, but....they came out and things are still not smooth.
Even after two errata, the matrix portion of the rulebook still appears to be a rushed copy paste delete job from 5E that no one ever bothered to finish. If you can understand how that all works from the rulebook, then you are a better man that I; and I work with the United States Tax Code for a living. I would say that the what that section needs is 10-20 pages of examples, but the examples that are in the book are either riddled with errors themselves or do not actually focus on the complicated or novel parts of the rules. It is my firm belief that you either need to be a Shadowrun savant, willing to make huge sections of the rules up/house rule many situations, or have read a significant number of forum posts and third party material to have any hope of really understanding how all of this works together.
The rigging section (as is apparently tradition at this point?) is a horribly undercooked five pages of rules, that is mostly based on the matrix rules (not great) that adds a variety of other vague premises on top of it. Maybe everyone just knows that you have to wait for the new editions Rigger book before you can properly rigger....
I question your statement that you cannot find anyone having issues with matrix/rigging. I too have the internet, and have had no issues finding such things on this very forum, Reddit, and other places...It has not been that difficult.
Also, I see a lot of people, including yourself, referring to the 5E (or whatever edition) rulebook to essentially say....'well rigging was worse there, so you should be happy with whatever they shoveled into 6E'. I don't understand this. I personally did not play 5E, did I need to to enjoy 6E? Again, if this rulebook is just for hardcore veterans, I will see myself out...
Oh, and I don't know when you started playing SR, but in 1st - 3rd edition most of the gear in the source books had some sort of art, even the cyberware and bioware. Check it out if you haven't; it's not always the best art but it's pretty cool that it is there.
I can understand defending a product you enjoy...but not simply declaring things false because you don't have a problem with them.