Volksgrenadier were heavily armed and based around a core of veteran infantry. They were elite troops.
This is true but as far as I know they consisted mostly of:
- german air and naval forces personnel
- people that returned from hospitals
- people that were considered too old for army at early years of war
Yes, these were built around core of veterans to share experience.
And yes, they were armed better than previous standards for infantry. They had more automatic weaponry including StG and Panzerfausts.
So you may say that they had elite equipment, but users of that equipment did not had experience of units that they had, for example, at the beginning of operation Barbarossa.
On topic:
If I understand design for current Soviet doctrine choices and unit rooster correctly, for Soviets it is intended to use
Conscripts as support unit with Penals/Maxims and doctrinal infantry
OR
Conscripts as mainline infantry with PPSh doctrines
So it is intended that non-PPSh Cons suck as mainline. And I don't see how you can make them cheaper without making PPSh doctrine OP. They are already cheap enough (20mp per model).
My problem with them is that they rely on vet 3 to stay relevant. If you try to rebuild them, for example, to have access to their utility (sandbags, AT nade, PTRS with doctrine), you sign yourself for huge MP loss due to bleed despite their cheapness.