The new revisited DevM LV meta might be really strong but Riflemen weren't fine back in the day.
Or did you miss the Era people skipped on them for AEs and Pathfinders as they were actually worth your MP?
They were weak because people compared them to Volks who were over performing. Instead of nerfing (which they did finally) those though, they committed the classic thing of overbuffing Allied units to match OKW without considering what it does to the matchup against Wehrmacht.
You can do one of two things. You can buff something to match another thing, or you can tone down one thing to bring it down to another. They did both at the same time, buffing Rifles and nerfing Volks, and that's why Americans are out of control in this patch.