I think you're a little quick in branding people as incompetent for disliking 'coldtech'. The simplest way I can put it is that it is little more than a micro tax. The strategic additions that cold tech brings to the table are minimal.
Game mechanics are interesting if players can take advantage of a situation to gain a strategic advantage over another player. For example green cover around a map can be used for protection or with a well placed mine / demo charge, it can be used as a trap. Green cover can be created and destroyed for the most part. The interaction with players is deep and satisfying to exploit.
The problem with cold tech is it's too much of a handicap to everyone and no one can really take advantage of a situation except for hunting down retreating squads in deep snow. And there's often little the retreating player could have done to properly predict the path. Besides, once the retreat is triggered, there's no more counterplay involved. So you can lose a squad and it's completely out of a player's control.
The fact that you think that cold tech doesn't provide strategic advantages kind of demonstrates the incompetent thing. There's DOZENS of ways to use cold tech to your advantage.
For example, one thing I used to do when I built an early sniper vs Soviets was screen him with deep snow. This meant if they popped Hoorah to try and rush him down they would get bogged down in the snow and the sniper could be quite safe.
https://youtu.be/gsHLH7ZOe5A?t=56
There's dozens of ways to use cold tech like this. Det packs on frozen water, using garrisoned vehicles or flares to get vision over your opponent during blizzards, camoflauging your units in deep snow for an unexpected ambush. (Very useful at the top left kholodny VP) etc etc. It's not my fault this playerbase doesn't think of their own ideas and just copies the same build orders as everyone else.
Also, A squad won't freeze to death retreating through deep snow unless it is ALREADY FROZEN BEFORE RETREATING. It takes like a minute of being frozen for a squad to lose one member. The fact that it is being brought up so much in this thread really demonstrates my point that people didn't keep their troops warm. I don't understand, how is building a firepit any more microintensive than building sandbags?
I think it's fair for people to dislike it, but it grates on me that people deny it added tactical depth to the game. It absolutely added meaningful tactical depth for those willing to utilize it and it's a shame it is gone from the game. As I've suggested, there's no reason it couldn't be tweaked to satisfy players here while still retaining some flavour. It's a shame for it to be gone completely from the game.