Copied from another thread since it seem to suit here better.
It is my opinion that the original concept was bad providing simply more of the same in the form of another LMG the implementation might have fault but that is another story.
Actually I had suggested a different weapons types in the bren/Vickers-k as an implantation of an early hammer/anvil choice that would make the anvil/hammer have added dept.
I fully agree, two LMGs are fairly redundant. Not necessarily unbalanced, but boring and badly designed. Now we have a weapon that does not really work on your main squad, so it became pretty useless instead of boring.
that is inaccurate they get a combat bonus at vet 1
Technically true. The bonus only applies to their Stens afaik. Putting weapons on them effectively reduces the veterancy bonus. REs don't get any offensive vet combat bonus
If you thing that R.E. are not good fighting squads I suggest you check tight ropes video playing high level 1vs1 using mobile assault and basically having commands and R.E.R as infatry.
As your own post already suggests, nothing in this strategy will work for the special weapons commander, which is the one we are talking about here.
This is where we disagree.
Having unit that are good at certain ranges is good for creating rock/paper/scissors mechanics but but that does not mean that mixing weapon that "do not synergize well" will automatically lead to a weak squad.
For instance, the M1 are mid do close semi automatic rifles (carbines) and M1919 is an LMG that do not synezise "well" together. On the other hand double LMG riflemen proved to be too strong because they had all the advantages of the long range squads without being vulnerable to close combat with the 3 m1. (and there are other examples)
To sum up:
imo the design of weapon with different profiles imo is better than 2 types of LMG that are equal in cost efficiency but one cost more. The implementation is a different story.
(The changes of removing the ability to donate weapons and the easier access to unit where also good changes, since in the old implementation it was a nightmare to balance the m3)
I don't know about the reasoning back then and also the game was surely very different at the time. From what I see, the USF LMG is almost a MG42 clone. Obviously having two of them will give you horrendous firepower, especially on a 5 men squad.
But again, this is missing the point:
A weapon with supposedly high moving accuracy for assaults does not synergize with a long range squad that basically constantly gets his out of cover penalty applied when moving.