you still dont have acces to them at all times or together
The majority of meta commander have access to grenades. There are few that they do not but saying Soviet do not have access to HE is simply inaccurate.
If you watch von Ivan streams you will also see that he get wipes with satchels and even demo charges regularly.
You still need to chase and risk it with it dying in a sneeze, its not a abilty with high impact that does massive damage instantly and forces a retreat.
It does not matter if it is an ability or not, it still force retreats and get wipes and at a very early stage of the game before axis unit even get HE. OKW especially get access to HE very late.
They made some units jack off all trades because they intended sov to have a infirior stock rooster and be dependend on doctrines and beat axis before late game. That has mostly changed but soviets still dont have nades or early ai upgrade stock wich zis and su76 barrage and even t70 compensate for.
And since SU-75 and Zis had barrage from early stage of design there is no real correlation between grenades or AI upgrades and barrage, it is not a compensation it is part of the original desing.
Implying that soviet can not get early wipes is simply inaccurate.