Cost and Ease of Use
Optimizing the subordinate mechs for kinetic ranged weapon usage came with a lot of consequences.
It would impose a standard that many customers would probably abide by. Their success and failure on the battlefield would depend in large part on the weapons they employed.
"We believe the tradeoffs are worth it." Jovy confidently said. "There are three advantages to pairing the Swarm Project with kinetic ranged weapons. First, the mechs are fast and relatively fragile, so they are not that suited for long, drawn-out engagements where energy weapons generally hold an advantage. It is much better for the Carmine mechs to enter the battlefield, fight intensively for a short period of time before rapidly disengaging from the battlefield in order to repair and resupply. If we had chosen to make the subordinate mechs large and bulky, then an argument could have been made to favor energy weapons instead."