Only other Battlefield game I've played is 1943, which had it's fair share of people who didn't do anything to cap the flags. But I agree, I've noticed so far that it seems to be a lot worse with this.
In a number of the games I played yesterday when on an attacking team, I found a lot were just hiding somewhere sniping. Some even sat as far back as in the starting base doing it.
Now, when playing Defence, I see no problem with people spending the whole time sniping. Yes, I agree there seem to be a lot of people who have found spots where they can hide behind rocks and pick you off, but they are defending the bases. The issue I have is when you are on the same team as somebody who is sniping to defend and when a base has been armed, even though they are close enough to go and try and defuse it, they still sit there waiting to snipe someone!
Though I've not used it yet, the artillery strike you get as a sniper seems to be one of the most powerful/useful perks going. So I guess that is why all these people are just sat about so they can use that.