He is. He crushes Biohazard paths with or without Suicides. He still has his utility related to regen, poison immunity, bleed resistance, chance at unblockable attacks when at 10 spores. He was the second R5 on my secondary account, and I use him all the time. If you're solid on longer fights, you can fire an SP2 to trigger the Death Field, build up as many spores as you can, then fire a few heavies to keep them to a SP3 and get some massive regen. Not to mention the damage you keep doing for all the spores over 10 once he's awakened.
TL;DR: He should be awakened and high sig, but he does not need suicides (IMO) to be an excellent champ still.
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TL;DR: He should be awakened and high sig, but he does not need suicides (IMO) to be an excellent champ still.