Bulgakov, you are so wrong. Of curse it can benefit other units (all of them) because they still can walk to cover insted of stoping in red cover to throw the grenade. Please think befor you write something like that!
Haha, well nobody said he is cost efficient. I transition him out of my army once he is down to 3 men by crewing a team weapon with him (whether paradropped or stolen). He will place his BAR on the ground so you can recover it with another squad. What good is lieutenant after 8mins? He can't use rifle grenades and that's all rifles are good for mid-late game. USF bleed lots of manpower reinforcing 5-7 squad blob, so no need to make it worse keeping this officer around.
Personally the reason I'm most hesitant to play right now is if my opponent gets a KT or JT, there's no simple counter, and depending on Soviet doctrine choice, no counter at all. Any tanks I have are worthless, any infantry I have are worthless (obersoldaten), any Vet 3 infantry I have are barely clinging on (obers again). OKW just blobs Panzerschrecks and Obers and stalls to KT, and it isn't fun to fight against.
I agree with that (KT and JT against soviets) but i still play. I love the game to much (despite all its flaws).