I continue to hear that despite it being not true. It's not much different from placing a builder in reality. Hover over a lem and see immidiatly where it lands. Even more precise throws don't require more action than a builder stretching does.
Sure, skill shadows, rewinding, and framestepping would make this a lot easier. You would still have to spam several Mortars though to get through obstacles that are a little thicker. There are several levels in L2 where you have to do this, and even though it's not difficult to execute, it's still quite annoying.
People are used to having to spam constructive skills (Builder / Platformer fests), but destructive skills usually have the advantage of only needing to be assigned once. The only destructive skill that's an exception is the Bomber. Is shaping a tunnel with several Bombers in a row fun? Or the infamous Stoner staircase that also just changes tiny pieces of terrain?
Also, does falling / jumping / gliding / climbing remove or create terrain now? I think not.
Did you read the full sentence?
I can't imagine too many levels where I could use this that I couldn't also recreate with a (falling / jumping / gliding / climbing) Bomber instead.
Obviously, you will need a Bomber in addition. But then you have a workaround - and the question of whether an existing workaround is really so complex that it warrants the introduction of a new skill which does it by itself is precisely the logic you used against the Slider.
Most use cases of the laser blaster require lemmings to be on a different level of the map.
Well, duh, this applies to pretty much all cases of a range skill - why would you need the range otherwise?
Even if you have two crowds or lemmings at the same altitude, they will then be in different horizontal hemispheres of the level (left vs. right), and you shoot across a gap. Thus, the Bazooker would always require a target at the same horizontal level, because it never shoots up.
The Mortar in turn couldn't be used for horizontal shafts at the same level, because once the projectile hits ground again at the same altitude as the Mortar lemming, it will make a dent into the ground, i.e. like a Bomber standing there, not into a wall, like the Bazooker.
Being able to interact with lemmings in completely different spots of the level is the whole point of range skills. Otherwise, you could simply assign a "proximal" skill to one of the target lemmings himself.
The setup is often the same: Some lemmings are on a higher elevation than the blaster.
Now you've just blatantly ignored all the following applications I listed:the setup: create a shaft from below that Climbers can use in the following
the setup: make a Stacker tower Climber-friendly from the rough side (since several stacks can never be placed exactly on top of each other): Have a Laser Blaster approach from the other side and cut off the protruding edges!
the setup: use 2-3 Laser Blasters right next to each other to create a shaft wide enough for other lemmings to build / jump / reach (Shimmier) / glide through (the latter with updrafts); for an application of this, see the Lemmings 2 level "Evolution of Lemmings" from the Cavelem tribe, or "Spinny Thang" from the Shadow tribe
the setup: cut through a pioneer's Platformer or Builder bridge from below to prevent the crowd from following the pioneer
[. . .]
affecting terrain at a distance: if a Laser Blaster can shoot through objects, i.e. including water, he could create a shaft through water behind or on-terrain, which Swimmers could then swim up through
All of these refer to the crowd being at the same elevation as the Laser Blaster. In the "cut off the pioneer's bridge" example, of course the Laser Blaster is technically a couple of pixels lower than the Builder or Platformer, but that Builder or Platformer would obviously come from the same crowd as the Laser Blaster, otherwise there wouldn't be any need to isolate him.
Even in the Swimmer example, where the Laser Blaster would have to be beneath a water area and the Swimmers within that area, they are just a couple of pixels apart in height.
That is connected mostly with the fact it can only affect terrain right above it and as the lemming cannot walk upwards through the tunnel, it usually needs a second group of lemmings to be at a higher level.
Strictly vertical destruction just is the most difficult to gain value of as lemmings often cannot act while traversing straight upwards/downwards. In the case of the digger you still have the advantage of the lemming slowly destroying the terrain while always standing on solid ground right in the middle of the action.
This I think is the fairest point against the Laser Blaster. However, it's also one of its main appeals regarding the design of more complex puzzles, since the player needs to think more carefully about how to not cut themselves off from a path to the exit, compared to if they simply had a Fencer.
Then don't provide a bomber. Also the bomber needs to be directly present at the site.
a) The Mortar can't stand too far away from the target either - a little lower perhaps, or on the other side of a small gap. Nothing that a Jumper / Shimmier / Glider / Climber / Swimmer couldn't also get across, in most cases.
b) The target position will still have to be accessed by some other lemming someway in order for the Mortar's action to have been useful. Meaning, while you won't have to get the Mortar himself there, you still need to provide a Jumper / Shimmier / Glider / Climber etc. for the other lemming to get there - if he is from the same crowd as the Mortar. So why not simply provide two iterations of each of the skills required to get across? Now you can get a Bomber and his follower on the other side an still achieve the same result. Meanwhile, you can't say the same for the Laser Blaster, since getting a Shimmier in position and then assigning a Digger from below is not possible.
c) The Mortar is only hard to replace if the target position affects a different crowd than the one where the Mortar comes from, AND you don't have a Bomber (or Bomber pickup skil,l to be collected at the point where you would otherwise assign the Mortar, so that the puzzle path would still be the same). But then again, this "affect a different crowd than your own" is precisely what you criticised about the Laser Blaster, so I don't see how this would be a point in the Mortar's favour?