I think they were a threat to S T1 ranged and melee squads for a good reason - except those, T1 Fire only has the Scavenger, which is nice, but not great at taking down squads alone. Thugs could chase a single unit around making them valuable not only because of their damage but the Looting passive. I think removing that makes them quite a big "meh", since they are no longer a reason to truly run away and not let them hit you. The added pressure didn't make them op, and all it took to prevent them from being super useful was just running away, usually with a 50 Power unit, thus wasting the add