This aint Vcoh. Riflemen, infantry sections, Grens and Panzer grens were imo all better than conscripts in varying ways. Regardless, the game was tuned to allow for that.
I know its not vcoh, this is coh2 but i think we all can agree upon the games are quite alike? so if one mechanic works in one game, chances are it works in both. Vetted LMG grens was better than rifles in vcoh too so your point being?
Support teams arent meant to be tanking damage if you are tanking damage with support teams you are doing it wrong, and this is the reason why machine guns have to be so weak in coh2.. being so resilient to damage and hard to wipe out leads to MASS MACHINEGUNS a viable tactic if machineguns actually was decent at their job.