There's been some talk that the new patch notes have nerfed grens and buffed penals and etc.
However, in line with relic's reasoning for changing small arms:
Focus on better aligning infantry small arms within our health/damage system. This reduces the amount of overkill and better enables us to control how small arms functions within the game.
DPS values MOVED VERY SLIGHTLY (less than .5%)
Example:
Kar98k:
Prepatch: 3.8 near / 2.42 mid / 1.03 far
Post patch: 3.78 near / 2.40 mid / 1.03 far
Penal SVT:
Prepatch: 5.73 near / 3.62 mid / 1.50 far
Post patch: 5.78 near / 3.61 mid / 1.50 far
They did the math to get the numbers to work out to be the same. Why they changed grenadiers from 20 to 16 when it wasn't overkilling units is unknown, but their dps is still unchanged and they still do more dps than conscripts. Penals will no longer overkill units which may be a usability buff but their overall dps remains consistent.