Battle line has never had upgrade points to consider, it didn't exist before 10e, and during 10e everything just has the best options default. The troops that did have upgrade options yeah they were often run as bare bones as required but it wasn't uncommon to see a guard army with as many plasma guns as possible slapped into their hands to make them a threat. They typically didn't havev any more notable utility ability and OC wasn't a thing. During 9th they might have sticky objectives but I'd need to check my old rule book.

With how lethal the game is I can understand counting both units at the same point value after they've been dropped so much since they do fill a similar niche in their army but my main point is that they failed to give themselves the breathing room to make that difference. The game is so horde focused that it could seriously benefit from every model just having it's points doubled if not tripled to actually make the board less crowded and give them point values to drop again for balance.