ORIGINAL: serg3d1
I'm thinking about quite radical change, not for the next patch of cause:
User-designed uints, like in MOO, or GalCiv
Indfantry could be designed too - infantry + light infantry gun = infantry recoiless, infantry + light armor III + flamethrower + satchel charge + eng tools = assault engineers with body armor, infantry + ski = ski battalions, infantry + mountains training = mountain infantry/jaegers etc.
One of the attractions of AT for me is that I don't have to manage what my soldiers are wearing

What you're describing looks totally appropriate to a Tactical level game (Steel Panthers has exactly what you list, for example), but not to Operational or Strategic. This level of detail is beyond what AT aims for - and a good game design has to remain focussed. Also Moo, GalCiv have AFAIK considerably lower numbers of units that the large scenarios of AT. Managing the rifle types and body armour of the Barbarrosa campaign...yukk, sorry but life is too short!
OK, so a scenario may not use these options, but any GUI additions and underlying code to manage them will still be there, cluttering up the screen and wasting processor time. OR you go for a GUI that changes for 'tactical' scenarios - by which point you may as well make a different game.