then nerf the doctrinal shit and buff the core soviet army...
What "doctrinal shit"? I don't see anyone use Shocks much in 1v1 and Guards Airbourne see very little play as well, even despite their doctrine being popular. Standard Guards are the only doctrinal infantry that is being used right now, but even those are usually just a specific tech choice rather than key parts to any meta build. They are decent, but by no means overly powerful or anything. They don't melt infantry and perform well only at certain ranges.
The reason why people don't use elite Soviet infantry much is actually pretty simple – to avoid the same issues some other factions face in late game, which is lack of snares around the map and manpower bleed when explosive damage replaces small arms as a main source of casualties.
No, SOV call-ins don't need nerfs and core infantry also doesn't need buffs, except for Penals and perhaps T34/76 timing, of course. But what the faction certainly doesn't need is nerfs to the core army.