falls: camo, airdrop, bundlenade, smoke, faust, field upgradeable weapon slot with no need for tech, etc,
Obers: ability to upgrade for either long range or short range combat, bundle nade, smoke, booby trap, etc.
Pgrens: viable vanilla, can be upgraded with G34s, be used as powerful AT unit, camo, bundle nade, satchel, reps, etc.
Jaegers: camo, long range combat/ crit sniping, infiltration nades, long sight, etc.
Fusis: G43, flares, long sight, nade, snare, etc.
Rangers are basically: you put Thompsons on them, you run them into CC, that's it. It's quite similar to how Rifles are used most of the time. 3xBAR is pointless, Zook Rangers are pretty pointless. The Ranger nade is quite anemic. All those German elite units get useful utility or ability to change/enhance tactics.
All those German units also carry more risk. What happens if one of the MANY high aoe AI units knocks out 4 ranger models? They run home. What if a one knocks out 4 fall/ober models? A massive loss.
Rangers are rifles on steroids. ie the best mainline infantry in the game on steroids. It ain't flashy but you get exactly what you pay for. They are bigger and better. Harder to hit and hit harder.
I agree their vet is pretty underwhelming since it's a copy and paste of Para vet (but with better base stats, granted 1 less man) perhaps a bonus in enemy territory (rangers lead the way!) would be a suitable vet 1 bonus.
The 3 weapon slots is amazing, and still having one after the Thomson upgrade as good as it is even more so. Just because they have 3 slots doesn't mean you need to fill all 3 with BARs,having a squad that can eat infantry and still scavange/deny a weapon to the enemy is an amazing thing.
Also iirc rangers have elite zooks, so 3 zooks on them have near shrek level damage and pen but still zook level reload and... Well you can have 3 of them.... Not wise in every match up but a nice option to have.
To say rangers are uninspired would be one thing but to pretend they are BAD is another entirely that requires PURPOSEFULLY ignoring thier qualities to skew perception. It's difficult to make a unique and viable elite infantry when your core infantry is semi elite to begin with.