Sadly I agree with all of this. Sad because I like QK (even though I haven't really played it much). But the black hand thing is interesting. I agree that forcingblack hand to exists feels a bit unecessary given the existence/purpose of the others. But how would CB continue to market new nomad products given they can't just invent new nomad motherships to exist out of the blue? I don't want a billion sectorials but it has to be said, people get most excited when a new subsection is introduced - compared to when new units are added to existing armies.
I've rationalized it away to myself in that one may have a Ranger tab on their uniform, but they never have a tour in the Regiment.
I'd say that in Infinity even the most "basic grunt" we can pick is the best guy of it's regiment. So you are not picking a random "basic grunt", but that specific "basic grunt" that you now it's up to the task.
In GitS Kusanagi recruits her team from former military (Batou was a Ranger, Saito Sniper, Boma Engineer/Explosives, Ishikawa Electronical Warfare) and Public Security (Togusa is a former Police Detective, Pazu was in the Military Police/Undercover). At least Saito, Boma and Ishikawa qualify as "normal grunts" and Togusa as standard Public Police officer. This is how I see our small teams: Specialists gathered by the Lieutenant throughout the avaiable ressources (Police like Bakunin Moderators, Tunguska Securitate&Kriza Borac or YuJing Celestial Guards, ordinary Military like Ghulams or Fusiliers, Special Forces like Spektr or Govads, Secret Service like Imperial Agents or Al'Hawwa). So if he needs some basic firepower, he takes some basic Ghulam or Fusilier Grunts - maybe one qualifies as a Forward Observer or even a Doctor.
Timeframe is also an issue, it might take a week or more to bus in reinforcements from off-planet, but there's a trio of Fusiliers playing rent-a-cop at the moto-tronica facility only two miles away.
Eeeyup! When you're working on the 'whoever can get there by 21:00 local' model, you end up with a lot of random dudes.
It's a bit sad seeing burial service for QK being read. They might have lost their perk of being starkly different from many other armies, but their design still holds even if they aren't the least limited in their own playstyle compared to the freshest releases. And then there are still very simple things going for them, starting with AVA 3 flashbots and AVA 3 Yuan Yuans, decent objective grabbers and classify coverage (for the most part, I think). This sherbet only needs a little bit of spice. And oh, it's not like Haqq is getting fourth sectorial.
Yeah give me Azrail wildcard or tactical awareness, and the Bashi specialist from Druze and I would be very happy
I'm not sure about particularities on what would be nice, but somehow after seeing KB making changes within ranks of "retired" armies (MRRF), armies which have their faction touched (MO) and then some armies addressed seemingly at random (MAF; although that sounds more like "updating small body count army with a few rules from new small body count army") I've gone so far as to order some of QK stuff even though I had no intention to collect them before, although that was more due to old sculpts. Then again, MRRF received mostly ineffectual changes and what's up with ASA, again? As for specifics. I'm not sure about attractiveness of Azrails outside of their relatively low cost, but TA would be useful on HMG indeed (that's as straightforward as it gets). Djan Haris would be nice (you can run small core and a Haris instead ofc, but standard line infantry core with this sort of Haris would be interesting). Not sure about Jans, while being mostly standard HI stuff with standard woes attached, at least they get to use Hafzas and Akbar, even theough the latter is limited when used on Jans. On the other hands, I've just realized that mostly warmly accepted new and fancy Frontoviks are basically Kaplans that trade BTS for (admittedly, more interesting) Veteran and Impact Template profile.
I picked a pretty nasty fight with Alkasyn during one of the bigger intent shitstorms but he's totally right here. Probably best not to imagine everything is too simultaneous special operations. Things like grunts, zanshis and Moderators might be first responders to an enemy special op
