It's a Guard's issue. Soviet infantry (aside from shocktroops) is meh x million.
I disagree, contrary to popular belief, penals actually scale quite well at vet 3, and conscripts offer so much utility that IMO scaling them into elite infantry late game is overkill. Every soviet infantry squad has some sort of unique utility attached to them. Guards should not equal the combat effectiveness of obers, for example, because they have the added flexiblity of squad size, and button. Conscripts have the ever useful oorah, at nade, and molotov. Shocks are just monsters right now, and guards have the ability to dish out solid long range damage and act as soft vehicle cc. Soviet troops are extremely flexible and their squad size allows them to survive the late game. Buffing their scaling or damage output would put the faction even more over the top as they already have access to the widest range of heavy armor in the game.