This is a job for the next patch. Only constripts with rifles should cost pop.
I think giving them a pop cap was a good thing to do because I had never upgraded my conscripts because I could build as many as I wanted at any point in the game.
0 pop, cheap as chips conscripts were the bane of early game. Too many people simply spammed them and forgo even upgrading them or buying strelkies saving resources for tanks etc...which was crap. The spamming was just ridicilous in team games.What the conscripts now do...is they give you a limited amout of cheap throwaway units to use from early to late game without investing too much(which no other army really has). They can cap fast...hold buildings,flank,harass etc...but they certainly won't ever make up the bulk of your army