Combat is supposed to be messy and unpredictable, shitty and dangerous, and that is one thing that JA2 1.13 is doing brilliantly. You should never have assurances that your plans will work, the game should never reward putting yourself into super risky positions where if you don't succeed it's all over. Instead the game is telling you repeatedly, don't put yourself into such positions, or rely on save scumming, in which case, as we already said, everything works (as long as you reload when it doesn't).

And what's with the fucking infatuation with athletics. Athletics is pretty good, especially for a minor skill. It's only the best skill in the game if you constantly use it offensively and then reload every time it gets you into trouble. You should really play a game on ironman, where your actions have actual consequences, and get a more realistic picture, before having more opinions about the things that you, well, don't know enough about to have an opinion that matters

As for all the knife things, well, knifes serve pretty well in the same role they have in reality, a weapon of really last choice, if you find yourself grappled or something. That is all they are. Try rushing someone with a rifle while wielding a knife in reality, and you'll quickly get the lesson that humanity has known for tens of thousands of years - range/reach beats all. Even without shooting, you'll get your face smashed in before you get to stab them.

From the boxing matches experience, hitting legs is often useful as you drain enemy energy, but they cannot kill you in one attack next turn.

As for dodge chance, I think having long rifle actually helps as it's basically a long stick or even spear, used in melee fights from ancient times.

In general, I always thought hth is mostly for boxing matches and punching enemy to steal some stuff while having some armed backup support, and melee is mostly for night operations or disguised spies, not for day attacks against enemies with machineguns.

With that mindset, why even having melee trait and melee weapons in game? Using them is always high risk and low reward so why bother? Assault rifles solves every situation the game throws you into and better than anything else.

Seems to me like you are one of those who has his whole team stacked behind some building wall in the map corner and just waits for enemies to come to him. Then yes, athletic is not needed.

If you actually try to search for enemies yourself or flank them, then you quickly realize Athletic is strongest trait in the game. Not only running costs less AP, but it saves energy as well. Non-athletic merc will end up with half the energy anytime he tries to run abour 40 tiles which significantly affects his total AP, CTH and who knows what else. And more importantly, Athletic merc that tries to run 20 tiles distance (say between building A and B ) and sees enemy in middle of that path can still react. Non athletic merc will end up in middle of the path with 0 AP and is dead. But obviously, if you follow the logic about high risk and low reward you would never put yourself into such situation, why risking running into enemy when you can lure them towards you right?

And then I'm the toxic one yeah

"Jack of All Trades, master of none"

Obviously, some experiments in strategy or tactics aren't going to work as well as others. But finding out what works and what won't is part of the fun.

The discussion about the relative values of a "Jack" merc vs. a "Max" merc didn't mention HTH but it still would apply. A merc maxed for HTH would be considered a "specialist". As such you wouldn't want to create a squad of all HTH mercs any more than a squad of all Engineers. Not in a game where firearm combat is the norm. Think square peg/round hole. It might fit but it won't be a perfect fit and might need a BFH to fit at all. Might be fun to try it once but I don't see it working for an entire game. But like the other specialists, used properly in the right situation, round peg/round hole.
Building a "Max" HTH merc. Give him the AGGRESSIVE character for "slightly bigger damage in close combat". After selecting MARTIAL ARTS you can select only one minor trait. This is where it's decision time, HTH weapons or bare hands. HTH weapons would choose MELEE with a background of HITMAN. Bare hands gains little benefit from MELEE so either STEALTHY or ATHLETICS. Neither directly affects HTH combat but both have advanantges that make it easier to get there. Backgrounds of BOUNCER, HITMAN or WRESTLER all have pluses but also minuses, none are a perfect fit. Pick your poison.
Another possibility is SPY instead of MARTIAL ARTS. Even when not disguised there are significant advantages to HTH. When disguised, walk right up to him. Sometimes you can even pull off a kill without losing the disguise.
One HTH weapon often overlooked is the Stun Gun. A hit is an instant KO followed by an auto kill or a prisoner.