That's been a thing for me for some time. It didn't bother me when I first saw ESB in 1980 -- I was five (almost six). But by the time I was in high school and had the movies on VHS and had the RPG, and -- just after high school -- the CCG... It began to niggle that the Snowtroopers made no sense. I could get the Sandtroopers, though I figured it was just regular Stormtroopers in kit better suited to prolonged operations under pounding sun, in sand, and needing to be optimized for that hostile environment -- not that there were a bunch of desert-ops Stormtroopers in their specialized gear sitting around in the belly of a Star Destroyer until they happened to be needed. But the Snowtroopers bothered me. We'd seen in the original film that Stormtroopers could operate for extended periods in hard vacuum and the cold of space. So why did they need specialized gear for a little snow right smack in the middle of their standard armor's normal operating temperature range?
More recently, I've come to feel that they work better as Imperial Infantry, and that there were regular Stormtroopers on some or all of the AT-ATs in addition to the infantrymen we saw.
Come the Prequels and Clone Wars series, George earned the epithet others had hung on him back in the '80s: "Toy Boy". The sheer number of granular variations in clone types and colors and such is, frankly, ridiculous. I can make an argument that the light-infantry Phase I armor we saw used as snow and flamethrower gear evolved into the light-infantry armor worn by the Galactic Marines, and that evolved, after the formation of the Empire, into various light-infantry armor types worn by the Imperial Army (the Mudtroopers on Mimban and the Snowtroopers on Hoth). But many are just redundant. The ARF Troopers fill an already-filled rôle. The ARC Troopers and Republic Commandos are uncomfortably parallel, and I liked that the old EU streamlined the two types into the singular Imperial Commandos. But then we got way more pilot types than are justified, we got random specialty troops that weren't justified (like the "Beehive" Troopers).
For the most part, I am pleased with the post-Disney depictions. They make more sense than not -- although the visual storytelling gives a clearer picture than the filmmakers intended. The "Shoretroopers", "Range Troopers", "Tank Drivers", "AT-ACT Drivers", and "Death Troopers" are all ISB. I could make the argument the "Patrol Trooper" in Solo is, too. There are a bunch of shared elements that tie them together the same way the Stormtrooper helmet and armor are repeated in their pilots and armored-vehicle drivers. The ISB maintained itself as a quasi-autonomous organization within Imperial hierarchy, complete with their own troops and droids. The Shore Troopers are their analogue to the Stormtroopers. The Tank Drivers are armored agents a la Kallus in Rebels, but later and with closed helmets. The Range Troopers are heavy infantry optimized for more hostile conditions than on Scarif. The Death Troopers are similar to the Shadow Stormtroopers, but cranked to 11 because the ISB is the ISB. Elite spec-ops troops and bodyguards for VIPs within the ISB or that the ISB deems warrant them. They're also the only ones who really merit the name they're given, even if that might not be what the ISB calls them in-universe.
More recently, though, they've been getting stupid again. The Purge Trooper feels appropriate as a parallel development of the Death Trooper, as the Inquisitorius and ISB are very definitely parallel organizations -- just with different foci. I can see the ISB developing the Purge Trooper program for the Inquisitorius so their troops didn't keep getting borrowed. But their woeful underuse was one of many problems with the Kenobi show. I hope they get a better outing in the next Fallen Order game.
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