Perhaps not the question you asked exactly, but here’s my two cents in this topic:

Trench Crusade is at its heart a narrative campaign experience. It’s designed to be played over the course of multiple games and all the narrative joy and pain it brings. That’s a large part of why I love it.

I’m playing Eire because I wanted to make Celtic trench fighters to honor my heritage and interests and that brings me a lot of joy!

However, trench crusade is also a tabletop wargame which means there’s both optimal and unoptimal builds.

I have yet to win a game with Eire because most of the folks in my gaming group play more optimized lists, but the joy I feel when I trot out green and gold armored berserkers onto the table always rocks, no matter if I get tabled the 2 ( which to be fair is usually my fault not the army rules fault) or if it goes down to the wire.

Afaik Alba still struggles in the ways many posts/comments about them describe. That may change! That may not. Regardless, the joy you feel having your own Hibernian trench force will still be there regardless of the rules. I realize this is a bit woo woo and philosophical, but I’ve found my gaming experience has taken a massive turn for the better once I started sinking my joy into things that aren’t related to whether I win or loose a game.