I'm not saying that pioneers will beat conscripts. Infact most of the time they will lose. But they can still win if they round a corner or something like that.
And they are definately fine. Ever played againts captainsprice pioneer flamer spam strat? That guy spams out like 4 flamers and blobs them like mad.
CE do exactly the same when you upgrade them with flamers,there's no justification that pios are more expensive, they should be made cheaper.