Well, AT IS itself is pretty awful design and its another gimmick, not something reliable.
Guards these boys are not.
And since UKF was stripped of all its popular gimmicks, no one will mind or miss an unpopular one that was barely useful.
Snipers crit shot still got that range advantage and correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it nerfed into temporary effect? Its still only a gimmick, not a reliable ability.
Same thing with AEC. Its a gimmick.
UKF as a whole was built around these gimmicks and all of them were hard nerfed one way or another into irrelevance, so the less reliant UKF is on remaining gimmicks, the better for the faction overall.
Being consistent with factions original design isn't really an argument, given the fact that original design was reliant on not having certain mandatory tools, but having potent gimmicks to replace them and since these gimmicks were made close to useless, I see nothing wrong with pushing them under the rug.
Don't mention mines.
If mines were sufficient solution for anything, OKW wouldn't get fausts.
Sure, they have a ton of gimmicks that may not be very potent in the long run but I guess with the way things are nowadays, I like a little originality to remain. Ha. Yes, the whole idea of faction design isn't really an argument. Hard to make a proper one when you have someone begging you to watch the Royal Edinburgh Tattoo with them while you are trying to post. XD
I can't bring myself to agree with Sappers having HEAT nades and I'm saying this as a British Player. Either the concept of Boys AT Infantry Sections need to be replaced or give them something that makes them more interesting. Maybe even turn them into a passive ability that grants AT options to your Infantry like being able to upgrade with Boys AT Rifles and grant them HEAT Nades that way. Keep it doctrinal. It's just how I feel about it.
You may not like the idea of the AT mines but I most certainly do. I've been playing the British long enough to learn to live without a proper snare, especially since PIATs can home in on targets now. The lack of snare led me to use a lot of Mines. With this new M7 mine, it's made my life easier, especially when Infantry can't set them off. Of course, I might have preferred the normal mine to be made for AT only but this is a decent alternative to me.