Sure, but why not make Cons better mainline intead of Penals in first place?
i have always seen cons as a defensive support squad which are to be used in conjunction with support weapons or tanks instead
similar to the volx from coh1. that's also the reason you can build them in t0. because you should use them as support for your penals / support weapons and not as sole attackers
actually i find the Basic design of coh2 extremely smart and astonishingly awesome