"far from op"
far as in Hermann Goering's jumping distance
I know right?
USF has, for most of the life of this game, been the harder faction. What sucks now about the Gren thing is that USF pretty much only has Riflemen to rely on in the early game. So now literally the one and only thing that was supposed to give you an advantage basically isn't there anymore.
Despite the fact that USF has so many things available early game, those things are almost all completely useless. Who's going to pay to unlock weapon racks, grenades, or even get an ambulance before teching to T1-2? Those things are all totally irrelevant T0 because you don't have the resources to utilize them