Pac-Fish is on the right track here. I don't think Conscripts should upgrade to pure Strelky Stats though. Added resistance to incendiary attacks would be a good benefit of vet. Buffing their capping rate with vet would be nice too. Once upon a time they had a capping rate of 1.25 or so. Perhaps a 1.1 buff would be in order. Picking up dropped weapons is too much though. PTRDs drop too easily and are replaced when the AT infantry reinforces. This leads to too many PTRDs on field IMO. IIRC at vet2 or vet 3 Conscripts could crew weapons. I don't know if this is still the case. I don't have a problem with it though.
Does it matter if you achieve vet3 in every game? I think not. Tis fun, I will grant you but hardly necessary. The notion that there is no role for Conscripts beyond early game baffles me. The molotovs are very useful throughout the game to force the enemy to break cover. When they get into close range to do so their full rifles upgrade is doing significant DPS as well. I think the Conscript Design is pretty well thought out.
BTW AI Conscripts are still picking up weapons. It is seen most readily when you succeed in breaking into the Soviet Base. It takes a lot of PTRD shots to do in a Jagdpanther but conscripts manage it on occasion. ::)
孫 TheEF_v1.7.10
子 ArtIllegitimi non Carborundum -"Vinegar" Joe Stilwell
兵 ofSun Tzu says: In warfare one compels and is not compelled by others
[b] 法 War