I think what he means is they are just bodies if they don't have any teeth. Which they don't. They can't defend if they are not a threat to the infantry that are attacking and I agree with that.
With the suggested changes the Soviet player will have the option:
a) spam conscripts cap and defend areas with them and wait for doctrinal support
b) Built T1 and play aggressively with Penals
c) Built T1 and combine conscripts and Penal
d)Built T2 and support conscripts with support weapon
A defensive simply unit does not have to good far DPS because the it the ratio of damage that it takes to the damage it does that makes that is important.