I'm reading these posts, and while I understand and can appreciate that you are trying to systematically (via hypothetical mathematics/theorycrafting AND actual gameplay testing) improve the class, I think you're all missing one important factor: aside from the airblast mechanics, the class isn't broken. You say things like, "pyro is crappy at mid and long range! we need to fix this!" This idea in and of itself is flawed. There are 9 classes in TF2. The entire purpose of a class-based system is that each class has both positive and negative characteristics. TF2 was developed with very well-defined roles for each class.
The scout is great at close range combat, decent at midrange combat, and very very mediocre at long range combat. The tradeoff is that he has low health. Through item additions, the scout has received weapons that make him phenomenal at close-range combat (FaN) at the cost of mobility. On the other hand, he's received things like the shortstop which can shift him into a dangerous midrange class while lowering his point blank effectiveness.
The soldier is great at close and mid range, but is laughable at long range due to the slow travel speed of rockets. Again, through item additions, he's able to shift his role to ultra high mobility (gunboats), no splash with high damage (direct hit), low-power tank (black box), and others.
The sniper is great at long range combat, but terrible at close range combat. He was given the huntsman as a way to change that and become great at close range combat while mid and long range combat suffer.
The demo is incredible at medium range combat, good at long range combat, but very spotty at close ranges. Unlike most of the other classes, he doesn't really have a great close range loadout (unless you count loch n caber, which are both banned in sixes anyway).
The pyro is great at close range combat. His midrange combat is OK, and his long range combat is nonexistent with the stock loadout. While I agree that the pyro in TF2 on release day was very weak, he's received no fewer than a dozen buffs via mechanics changes. Valve wanted to boost the pyro's ability to fight at range and fend off snipers, so they gave him a long range flamethrower (flare gun). They wanted to give him a way to set people on fire at a range without having to aim, thus they introduced the detonator. They wanted more close-range burst damage, so they gave melee weapons guaranteed criticals. They wanted to further influence people to play an ambush style, so they added the backburner. The upgrades are virtually countless.
The point is, it's nonsensical to attempt to make the pyro's weapons viable at all ranges. The purpose of his class is not "to be effective at all ranges". If your goal is to make him effective at all ranges, you may as well do the same for the 8 other classes in the game (of which, zero are excellent at all ranges, and few are as effective at both close and long range combat as the current iteration of the pyro).
The pyro doesn't need to have damage buffs. You can already hit someone for 130 damage by tapping someone with flame at close range, airblasting them, then switching to flaregun and shooting them before they land from their always-exactly-the-same arc. If that doesn't work, you can get free mini-crit damage on them with a melee weapon instead of the flare gun. The pyro is despised because it takes nothing other than 'decent' reaction time to reflect projectiles on reaction, and for the laughable effort put into reflecting, the pyro is rewarded with critical damage while also taking no (or very little) damage in most cases. The pyro is also despised because airblast mechanics are completely ridiculous and it takes zero skill to block half of an ubercharge by doing absolutely nothing other than pressing right click.
The very bottom line: pyro is a utility class. It is not intended to be a high damage-output class. It's there to aid you in certain instances and to be annoying in all others. You can kill a scout by setting him on fire with a single tick of ammo, then hitting him with a flare. You can guarantee a mini-crit hit for 101 (I think 101) by swiping your axetinguisher on someone you've set on fire. They can't get away because you can simply airblast them into oblivion. You can reflect rockets that are fired at you both intentionally and accidentally with very loose timing and even looser aiming. You can reflect rockets that were shot from behind you, toward the rear of your model, without even seeing that rocket just by right-clicking while still facing 180 degrees away from the rocket while it's still traveling toward your behind. I'd say the class performs the task for which it was intended quite nicely.
Even if you fix the airblast mechanic and you alter the pyro's damage, it's still not going to become a primary class in sixes because there's simply not enough chaos occurring to make its lack of mobility effective at all times.
Pyro is viable in highlander for several reasons:
-it's a required class
-it's a direct counter to other classes that are always in play (spy, sniper)
-there is enough chaos in highlander that the pyro can frequently and reliably get close to/behind unsuspecting enemies
-9 targets means flares fired randomly will almost always ignite someone
-ubers that are typically led by heavy/demo combos are easily thwarted by right-clicking
-there's only one scout to deal with, so the chances of the pyro getting destroyed by scouts is much lower
-the overall mobility in highlander is much lower than in sixes
None of these points really apply to sixes other than the ability to thwart ubers, which, as expected, is where pyro is most frequently used in sixes.
If valve gave the pyro new weapons that gave it the mobility potential of a scout, soldier, or demo, you'd see it become a viable main class, but until then, it won't happen in the upper divisions.
aaaand that's enough dissertation for now. :-|