I had already changed to cp1 in my own personal mod, but generally speaking playing against AI doesnt really prove much imo.
The squad itself is generally much better AI-wise without upgrades than Riflemen are, albeit even less spammy and without snare, but the issue always comes to the fact youll be able to add thompsons/lmgs to them eventually so their dps shoots up further. AT paras (from weapon rack) are fun and more credible an investment the earlier they are. Vetting up earlier helps all iterations and I generally feel that you can run two squads of paras into your build with the changes without bleeding to death. Its just a question of acceptable balance still, I think.
What were your findings, if any.
Mostly the same. At first, I thought that maybe the SMG upgrade would be okay to leave available from the drop onward, but the spike in effectiveness they give is just way too good at that point. Locked behind tech, the advantages the upgrades give are still really good but won't be overwhelming (hopefully)
Everything else I agree with you, pretty much. Maybe some slight nerfing to the M1 Carbines could be looked at (moving accuracy maybe?) and the Timed Explosive ability definitely needs to be replaced with a satchel, but I think locking the 6th man behind tech and upgrades behind Weapon Racks is a perfectly viable of introducing Paras to the early game for the most part.