as far as i know, small arms shots that miss cant hit due to scatter. the scatter is just for show. only tanks have collision detection on missed shots. infantry can only be hit by scatter by weapons with AOE.
i agree with you that the molotov gives cons an advantage over the rifle nade. however, i disagree that there is some mysterious unexplainable change in gren performance. this whole game is nothing but numbers. everything can be explained through stats. claiming there was some change no one can explain is a cop out people use. unless someone can come up with a valid argument as to why grens are now weaker, im skeptical to believe it.
all of the changes that were made to the gren are incorporated into our dps calculation. as everyone has said, dps hasnt changed significantly. what people may notice is the grenadiers damage is now less spiky. if the grens got lucky, 20 damage per shot meant the first volley could kill a conscript entity. now grens shoot faster and more accurately. this makes their dps more consistent and actually closer to the dps number. before, if grens got enough lucky hits, their actual dps would be much higher than their dps on paper. the flip side of that is, if they were unlucky, they could also do much lower than their paper dps. grens are simply more consistent now.
That an excellent explanation - though I have noticed that this makes grens worse vs cons in my experience and even can have a tough time ie lose 1 sometimes even 2 guys to engineers