"They are fine in context of the Soviet army". For me it sounds like "Soviet army sux so hard, that bad Conscripts unit alone looks better, than entire faction in general". Well, +1 to that.
But for real - they are excellent support? I thought, that support job is for support units, like HMGs, like AT-guns or speciallized support infantry... you know. And mainlines infantry job is not support, but fight and capture and doing most imoprtant job in field. Not support.
And good news - not only Cons can build good green covers and fight nice behind them. Volks can do it, Tommies can do it, and also build non-doc trenches, lol. That's not "strength" side of Cons, try something else.
Soviets arent even that bad atm, and as other said Cons work as early game units that can give you effective map control for minimal mp bleed. As the game progresses the become meat shields to soak up damage and support the Soviet's very strong elite infantry and provide utility (Cons with anti-tank grenades with guards is very effective against light vehicles). Cons are also cheap (240) with basically no bleed, quick and cheap reinforcement costs, Cons aren't designed to be like other infantry where they are your main damage output, cons thrive when supported by elite infantry and support weapons to be used to maximum effect.
"Give to Penals early AT, like PTRS pack - will use them."
Then T1 loses its main weakness and becomes much stronger than T2, and plenty of people who go t1 tech to t2 for AT, and likely more people will do it after the patch.