I think the States phase is key to their usefulness. If you had to spend orders to try and roll it they wouldn't be nearly as useful.
The medikit on the model, from what Section9(I think it was him at least) had said, seems to have been based on the sculptor seeing US forces today always wearing medikits intended for the medics to use on them.
I'm not sure about minutemen, I'm unable to find what they need without knowing more about N4 and how it will affect USARF. By design USARF doesn't have many long range burst 4 weapons, and the mid range one's like the molotok usually have a TAX, and that's fine, it's the flavor of the faction, the design tries to incentive the use of multiple coordinated troops instead of a single rambo unit. Minutemen and blackjacks where meant to be support units with heavy weapons, the ones that clear the way for the rest of the list. The changes have made that role more viable for minutemen, for specific scenarios the haris is not particularly bad even if most of the time marauders are the better option. I don't know. They can't get more expensive without becoming more durable. But also they can't get too cheap to avoid completely overshadowing marauders. Even with that I would like to see them fit a well designed role instead of fighting against marauders for a place in the list.
