I am not defending the design I am simply bringing it up.
One has to keep in mind that if unit A has better base that the unit B and unit B has better vet bonuses at vet 3 the 2 unit could be become equal.
What about the 4 other factions, which most definitely have at the very least half a dozen units with high base performance and high vet as well?
(For instance although number might no be up to date:
IS base target size 0.8 > Riflemen base target size 0.97
IS received accuracy vet bonus 0.78 < Riflemen accuracy vet bonus 0.77*0.85
IS target size at vet 3 0.62 slightly better than Riflemen target size at vet 3 0.64)
(or the famous myth about commandos and the vet bonuses)
That's cool and all, but rifles are not weaker then tommies overall from get go I'd argue they are better then 4 man tommies in all situations but blobbing and a-moving.
Points here are:
UKF used to had inferior vet bonuses
looking just at vet bonuses that not give the full picture.
Used to?
A whole plethora of UKF units lost their gimmicks and were brought down on the level of other units performance while keeping weak vet.
Comet could be prime examples here, its stats were brought down so much it needed vet addition.
And there are more units like that.