Why would anyone care about these numbers? They change nearly every battle anyway.
There are players, who equip soldiers based on their name. Because lore, immersion, role-playing, etc.
But there are also players (including myself), who don't equip soldiers by name, but by their position on the craft (i.e. their role on the team). For example: first two are scouts, next four are melee, next four are riflemen, next four are grenadiers and last two are psi.
For such kind of equipment, knowing which "position" you are equipping currently is useful.
But fwiw I never had any problem doing it this way.