The colors are confusing at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly.
The free soldier DID in fact get a buff in one of the recent closed betas, and it is now a very playable character. If you are good at aiming, then you can definitely fight back effectively as a free soldier.
Also, to me, half of the fun of Renegade is making a comeback after losing a building. Often times losing a building just results in your team getting more coordinated. Lost the weapons factory? Time for a gunner rush! Being able to bring back buildings would ruin the game, not to mention it would remove the win condition from the game type.
