Well, ladder play isn't tournament play. There were a lot of top 50 players who wouldn't last beyond the second or third round of a tournament.
4ES was strong enough that Marinez made it to the front page of the American leaderboard using it on a profile named 4ES. People knew it was coming and still couldn't beat it. He also had decent tournament success with the strategy, and it was adapted a number of times with minor changes to improve its viability. It was a difficult strategy to use, but extremely difficult to beat when used correctly.
WSC openings were rare, yes, but fast WSC follow-ups after 3 rifles were common on maps like Semois and Argentan, and late-game WSC transitions were essential in many situations. It's not all about openings you know; one of the major boons to CoH1's strategic variety was the fact that every tier was viable in a number of different situations thanks to upgrades, purchased veterancy, and the fact that the tiers were well-composed. You frequently saw players backteching to WSC after Motor Pool, or Wehrmacht T2 after a T3 rush, simply because those tiers offered units that were vital in certain situations.
Moving on, fast grenades were actually an amazingly effective opener at all levels of play; KoreanArmy's entire American strategy revolved around this opening, and he had notable tournament success. Even if you don't deal damage with the grenades, you force your opponent to reposition MGs, which negates a large amount of manpower investment, and it also lets you follow up with a triage and transition into the midgame a lot easier than BARs.
As for snipers, nobody with any clue about what they're doing has relied on countersniping to kill snipers for at least 2 years now. There are far better ways to deal with snipers than by flipping a coin and hoping for the best.
I don't care if you prefer CoH2, or think it's a better game. At the end of the day that's entirely subjective, and nobody can tell you what you do and don't like. But if you're going to spout bullshit, at least have a sliver of a clue of what you're talking about.
Regardless, you've pushed us off-topic. Let's not derail this thread any further.
the stuff you described was used by A FEW people on A FEW occasions. the "not top 50 and tourney player" guys used the same standard build orders over and over again (list above). because they were reliable, easier to perform and therefore gave people the best chance to win.