There was two guards and heavy amount of ammo needed per tank untill its heavy one which cant accelerate fast enought to avoid bombing after initial button, and on top of it, axis player needed to missplay hardcore to allow guards to be in range of button, so whats the problem? Its not like guards could just walk into supression and superior axis inf and kill any tank they wanted to.
Also, guards may be cappable combat unit on paper, but i havent seen them for ages nor in 4v4, nor in 2v2 sice fade of unstoppable double soviets double snipers+t2 tourney meta (and even then cons were more usefull than guards on average, lol); nor in 1v1.
i would ALWAYS be willing to spend hundreds of munitions if it meant i would kill a heavy tank. thats literally no question about that. youre spending under 400 munitions for a guaranteed tank kill. button range is just slightly shorter than tank gun range, its not like its AT grenade range either.
just because you dont see them doesnt mean theyre not good. people just favor maxims into t70s right now. when guards first got their buffs they saw a lot of play and they performed quite well. imo theyre a unit thats actually pretty well balanced ATM, and they provide good long range defensive firepower.
its not like Button is completely useless now either, i see the ability as something that buys time for your other units to get into position rather than just completely shutting down a tank with one button. It buys time for cons to get into range for an AT nade, or your AT guns to get 1 or 2 more volleys off. etc etc.