I'm good without AA defenses, back then it used to be on 9/10 operations and it was miserable.

If PoI had a wider range of (non-expendable) equipment and included backpacks, it would be a good incentive to drop without them;
but as long as not bringing weapon/backpack stratagems is basically a guarantee that I won't have any for the entire mission with randos, nahhhhhhhh