Profile of Hon3ynuts

The problem is that the range at which the DPS curves diverge is too close. So if you encounter an enemy Volksgrenadier in some cover, you cannot fight on long range since Volks will be more cost efficient. So you need to close in which is very risky since loosing a model while closing in will likely mean the loss of the complete fight.
The early Gren/Con-balance had a similar thing - Cons had to close in. But Cons are dirt cheap to reinforce, and they could take a model loss and still trade efficiently on close range. Also they cost the same, so no one got a real map presence advantage. These were the most interesting matchups in the game.
But Riflemen are not cheap to reinforce, Volks have an extremly potent Sturmpioneer at their side to help in early game and until USF getsthe officer out, they lack behind in map presence.

I really don't get your second point. It makes no sense. You can spam sandbags while capping a point from early to late game. So your infantry is always close to green cover. USF has literally no non-doc options to create green cover. Of course open field encounters happen, still most fights and especially the important ones are fought from cover. Taking away sandbags from Volks would go a long way to bring them back to normal cost efficiency.

If you want to look at another comparable unit, Rifles do less damage than Penal models at every range above 9(where cover works) but cost 1 mp more for 3% better RA. Even with BAR upgrades and at vet 3 Rifles do less dps than a penal squad without an upgrade until they are at ~5 range, despite the 120 muni investment of bars. This is Similar to their comparison with grens who also do more damage per man until they are at range 10 where rifles to the exact same damage as 1 gren, who has .9 RA to rifles .97 at vet 0.

Rifles seem to be decent at every range except super cqb compared to other units like grens and penals, which doesn't help to trade cost effectively. Man for man or cost for cost they trade worse as a result of the dps curve and upgrades that are not as cost effective. It seems like rifles are a bigger issue than volks. They can win the fights but seem less efficient than other similar units, who can be more effective at normal cover to cover engagement ranges.

Edit: Holy fk: rifles go from doing 39 DPS at range 10 to 64 damage at range 0 vet 3 full upgrades. Their power spike is insane when face hugging, Penals only go from like 41 to 45 dps. That's kinda useless most of the time though, Shocks don't even do any extra damage closer than 10 range b/c yoruw hole squad never gets that close.

It's terrible at attacking ground, so it would be a bit self defeating

It's actually just not very good right now though, I would rather build a quad, which costs a bit less fuel and is supressing just as well as the AA HT, easier to micro too

1 if 5 men are weak to explosive immagine using gren
2 USF can surpass the pop cap limit thank to the crew mechanic, if u have pop cap problems with USF immagine any other faction whom can’t use crew mechanic

I didn't mention squad size and I acknowledged the popcap
Did you even read the post?
From Original post
1 "explosives that ignore RA"
2"IK there is decrewing"

USF has a huge problem late game with MP drain. When Panzerwerfer or Stuka comes into play the 280MP rifle are shut down. You can build cheap RE as replacements for weapon pick ups and cap points but they are so lame late game than why even bother. USF generally more micro intensive and almost all of their units require constant baby sitting.

I would second this, I don't typically find rifles lacking too much vs comparable infantry, but once tanks and indirect fire come with explosives that ignore RA, the cost to maintain 4-5 rifles(inluding officers in this), RE's any support weapons can be quite prohibitive.

Additioanlly when you get to late game, if you have gone say 2 officers that's 37 popcap, 6 for vet 3 Re's, 1 major 3, ambulance 3, without any support weapons that's 52 popcap. Limiting your tank pool (IK there is decrewing) and decreasing your manpower income. For example the other day i got 2 officers and 2 support weapons, then I was popcapped with 2 vehicles, a sherman/priest. It's hard to make decisive pushes with limited vehicles and even if successful reinforcing may still drain your reserves.

TLDR: Popcap sucks when you gotta spam rifles

Only Para's get double M1919's where Rifleman can only have 1, right?

Yes, but you will have more than 2 units of infantry to give the m1919's to, so you can buy more and you don't need to spend any extra manpower to get access to said lmgs.