That is not exaclty true, only a few "elite" squads got their reinforcement ever changed.
It is completely accurate. Check the reinforcement cost for most units that had their cost changed in the recent patches. You will see that the "rules" about reinforcement cost, time and build time where not taken into consideration indicating that they no longer apply.
There is at least 20 team weapons in the game. Only maxim, DShK and MG-34 don't follow the rule and in case of MG-34 it is just a 1mp discount (which still makes it the cheapest to reinforce mg in the game). MG-34 is actually cheaper to reinforce than MG-42.
I only mentioned HMGs. The rule did not apply to them before the latest patches and it does not apply now either.
HMG-34 reinforcement cost was higher then that of HMG-42 before the patch as I pointed out.
Currently the HMG-34 (with a 250 manpower cost cheapest), is only 0.5 cheaper to reinforce than the 280 manpower HMG and more expensive than 300 Dshk.
The cheapest to reinforce remain the maxim and Dhsk because the comparison must be done per entity and not from a crew of 1.
Comparing full reinfocement cost is the only solution. If you try to ballance the costs around single entity cost, then all you get is that bigger squads are disadvantaged by their size and become just a manpower sink. Remember that these models are actually weaker to compensate for the squad size. For example if conscripts were 30 to reinforce like grens, they would also have to be as good in combat as grens. Nobody would like that ballance wise.
The crew of HMG are not weaker that are almost identical, so the comparison must be done per entity and NOT for full squad. That means that Dhsk is the cheapest to reinforce although it is the most expensive to buy.
At the issue of this tread imo one could indirectly nerf HMG spam by:
reduce the speed or even remove the ability to Cap
increase reinforcement time.
remove sprint from hmgs
make AP round vet 1 ability for 0.50/dhsk that work similar to current Dhsk levels and scales with veterancy
Check if HMG-42 need any adjustments.