You are the one ranting (and showing your own bias).
CE as very close to Conscripts in combat stat per entity. There are simply not "terrible/horrible" as you claim.
They certainly more cost efficient than pioneer/Ro.E. in early combat and they can be supported by merge.
The fact that you resort in (false) personal comments is a very strong indication that you lack arguments to back up your claims so I will not even bother to respond to them.
It costs 21 MP to reinforce Combat Engineers.
It costs 20 MP to reinforce Conscripts.
What player is going to sacrifice a functioning combat squad on the field to Merge into Combat Engineers to save 1 MP.
So you are arguing that Soviets should lose field presence by merging Conscripts into Combat Engineers.
As intelligent as you try to make your arguments sound it becomes clearer by the day that you are simply just flat out terrible at the game which would explain why anything Allies related (evident by your recent lack of mention on Pioneers and jumping on the anti soviet bandwagon) you jump for nerfs. During the Commander Patch preview you were literally in every single allied thread calling for nerfs but were strangely silent when it came to Axis nerfs. I am not trying to slander you by stating something false, literally almost half the threads on COH2.org is Katitof vs Vipper and most of the time it is you spewing out verbal diaherra. I honestly feel bad about the moderators on this forum every time it turns into a Katitof vs Vipper thread.
Combat engineer are far from terrible in combat. Early flamer and merge allow them to fight in the early stage of the game.
(In Case you forgot, I don't see a single mention of Pioneers in your post but those who are biased often fail to see their own bias and tend to live in their own world also reading comprehension is fundamental)
Now back to the topic at hand before Vipper attempted to derail the topic, wether or not Combat Engineers had similar combat stats to conscripts doesn't make it any less painful to gain Veterancy which was the whole point of OP's thread. Combat Engineers don't win against anything unless they are in Green Cover and against Pioneers max range who happen to just sit there afk hence why I stated Combat Engineers are terrible but again that is not what this is about.