Honestly, I sometimes feel like I'm the only person who *can't* use the grenadier effectively
That said, I have noticed the trend, and specifically in the past few weeks. Maybe it's a fad, or maybe people have been emboldened by earlier successes, but I hadn't seen them much outside of very early rushes vs base defenses until the past two weeks or so. They've definitely been felt, though, namely that one large game of Seamist where one took down the pillbox and I couldn't find where he was throwing from for the life of me
While something needs to be done, I don't think that thing is the removal of the grenadier entirely. That's rather drastic. At the same time, I do understand that endless tweaks aren't exactly the most productive course of action. However, there's nothing to stop us from both removing that role entirely and making a new role, and that new role *still* being the grenadier. Regardless of other concerns, making a major change can have ripple effects and balance elsewhere could be affected unintentionally. That's why things like this can't be done lightly, and why when changes are made, the simplest, least impactful change that still works should always be desired. I'll admit, I'm kind of pulling from my legal interpretation training here, but common law tests have withstood the test of time for a reason.
Now, I'd be willing to go for a major revamp of the unit, because while that's a big change, "grenadier" is still a known quantity. If you want my advice, make the attack a lot less powerful, but give it a grenade launcher similar to vanilla renegade to make the aiming/range more defined, but with less splash radius. The damage could also be tweaked so the unit is much more anti-building than anti-infantry, contrasting it with the flamethrower. As much as I've been loving the flamethrower lately, could even tone it down vs buildings as well. I think range is a key concern though that could be used to make things different enough. This is probably a good compromise overall.
The counter-argument I'd be most willing to accept is that from some perspectives the grenadier is currently breaking the game balance as is, and thus it doesn't really matter how drastic we act because things are screwed up anyway. I frankly just disagree with that idea. Even if I was willing to say the problem was large enough immediate action, the way the current unit works clearly factors into how players strategize now, both in usage and countering. Even if said use and counters are "lame", it's going to jerk around the entire structure, so we must do our due diligence.