Helldivers 2 director turns to community for advice on how to get meta-enthusiasts to stop kicking other players

They can't. There is nothing they can realistically do. Players like that will always exist.

EDIT: I see some people suggesting some wild solutions. Let me offer my opinions on them:

Someone suggests allowing players to block other players so they never get matched with them again

This is not healthy for a game with matchmaking to allow players direct control over its matching system like this. In a PvP game this would especially be a problem, but it has problems in PvE games as well. In this situation, meta players would just block other non-meta players, effectively lowering the matching pool to two different queues in a single large pool. In this scenario, it would be more efficient for the matchmaking system to just have two separated queues, which brings me to the next point.

Someone suggests having a toggle for players to pick between basically "Competitve/Meta Only" and "Casual/Social"

This would not be helpful either, because players will ignore these tags. They will queue into Social, and then procede to play like its Competitve. This is already a major problem in basically every other online game on the market. And its also one that realistically cannot be solved because it relies on trusting the player to behave, which is impossible.

Someone suggests to apply a penalty to a player if they have a certain amount of kicks within a short time period

While this is perhaps the best option, it still has its issues. There may be genuine cases where a player is repeatedly matched with disruptive or AFK players and chooses to kick in those cases. Those players should not be penalized. Sure, the number may be statustucally small or even insignificant, but as a PvE game its important that no legitimate player is penalized, or forced to play with disruptive players for fear of being penalized.

Someone likely has suggested or will suggest a system where players can report a player and after a certain amount of reports then the account is flagged/etc.

Mass reporting. Mass reporting is why these kinds of tactics aren't great.

In the end, gamers can be simplified into two categories: Math Bois and Explorer Bois. Its very difficult for the two to get along because the way they derive fun is opposite to each other.

• Math Bois: They like when number get bigger. They will avoid anything that isnt peak optimally efficient. They're the players that play only meta playstyles because it is the peak, most mathematically efficient way to play. To them, its fun when the numbers are as big as possible and they're able to abuse and exploit systems in a game to make the numbers bigger. These are the kinds of players to play hundreds of hours in games like League of Legends.

• Explorer Bois: They like to explore. Usually, these players will take actions they know are mathematically inefficient, but it might take them to a more interesting location, or they may be able to play a build that is uncommon/new. Sometimes they will purposely avoid meta items or playstyles simply on principle that they are meta. These players tend to not care much at all about numbers, but rather derive fun from trying new things or new ways to play. These are the kinds of players to spend hundreds of hours in games like Skyrim, and will usually have the entire map explored.