The version that I found on the web is not as bad as what the OP describes. The prerequisites are Rapid Shot and BAB +8, it does not work if you are threatened. It also does not establish flanking.
So it is the third feat in a tree (unless you managed to avoid the Rapid Shot prereq by, for example, being a ranger) and it is not available until mid level.
Since it does not work when you are threatened, you only get one AoO even if four different enemies rush up to you, assuming the first one gets close enough to threaten you. (And it is one AoO for the entire move/run/charge, not one for each square.)
It is better than a melee fighter with a reach weapon, since there is no efficient way to go from beyond the threatened range to melee range with five foot steps. (If you have a reach weapon, I can close to 15 feet and if you move close enough to attack me, I can five foot step and attack you without provoking an AoO.) OTOH, you have spent a feat, so you should be better than someone who is just using a common weapon.
That said, a thirty foot threatened range is huge. In a typical dungeon, there is likely to be nowhere in the room where a caster would not be threatened.
On yet another hand, any creature between the archer and the potential target provides soft cover. Soft cover explicitly differs from cover with respect to Reflex saves and Stealth checks, so it seems that soft cover would also prevent attacks of opportunity.
If you pay attention to
all of the rules, the feat is at least very strong and probably broken. If you take liberties with the rules to simplify things (ignore soft cover, enemies move as a block), then it is definitely broken.
