well. no.
that used to be the case, and it was a bit unrealistic. and much of a shit show when bots were able to do just that.
which i think flamethrowers are somewhat in a good spot ( if it wasn’t for the fact that they can ignite stuff behind walls but not fences. that is less okey 
)
So you think that it’s unrealistic to reload while on fire, which if you tried to put it it would cancel the reload, but it’s realistic to have the stripper clip you put it be completely knocked off or an old magazine completely reappear after you take it out all because you took a Tik of fire damage?
pretty much.
now, i don’t think… both of us can reload when burning.
and for everyone’s sake, i do not suggest to try it at home.
but considering the damage on flamethrowers, yeah.
it is balanced to me.
beside, you can still throw grenades at your feets, attempt to kill him with what’s left on your mag/clip, hope for bots or others players to shoot the guy, switch ( if any member survived ) amd kill the guy your self or wait. eventually he must run out of fuel.
in the end, your soldiers can’t really be tanking all the flames and disregard the pain to somehow reload.
casualties are the norm.
I don’t think that the flamethrower needs to weaken its damage and its AOE damage. It only needs to limit the people who use it at the same time. Like the aircraft and tank teams, only one group of people can use the flamethrower team at the same time, which can effectively limit the problem of four people forming a team and four teams of flamethrowers breaking up the enemy’s attack instantly.