As discussed in Opinions on how to rework the APC or add other vehicles (you could have necroed my old thread instead of starting a new one, I could turn it into a likefarm), I think it would work better if the vehicles were reworked into something like on civ 13, being basically a block of moving walls and doors which can be entered without delay (as long as the door’s unlocked). This way the vehicle would require support by infantry in order to not get it’s door slashed down and itself rushed. On that topic, maybe even add some system so xenos spitting acid could penetrate the vehicle’s armour using it (maybe so the more damaged the vehicle is, the more damage gets through the armour and injure it’s crew) to allow xenos to disable the vehicle without needing to destroy it complety. As far as I know, the RP requirements for VCs were the same as the SL ones (technically).
Many people also suggested having the vehicle be transport only (there was a PR some time ago removing req’s droppads and replacing them with a truck), but CM’s maps are just too small for transport vehicles to be necessary. From my experience as VC, we mostly transported beno corpses to FOB and maybe one marine every five minutes to the front, but req can basically teleport crates of supplies onto the front, IOs can basically teleport beno corpses aboard the DS and FOB to frontline is even on the bigger maps a two minute walk, however the vehicle could be useful for that so the marines do not get ambushed and killed without anyone noticing. It could work if maps were specially made for vehicle gameplay, but this would basically make the APC required for transporting marines and would leave the USCM at severe disadvantage when it gets destroyed.
As far as I know the main reason for the vehicle removal was them bodyblocking everyone on the frontline and nobody maintaining them, so some dedicated dev would be needed. On the ARC, apparently it was autoclosed a few hours ago, probaly one of the many great PRs that get autoclosed and forgotten. And on the “vehicle gets purchased using techpoints” or “CIC staff has to drive them”, not a big fan of both as the first one would lead to either one VC latejoining ten minutes after the purchase and having to wait for a second one to join or some rifleman would get chosen to use the “how to drive armoured vehicles for dummies”-guide and then driving around on a map he has never played before without fullfilling any playtime requirements. On the latter, I think there should be a dedicated vehicle role and not a “join SO; pray higher-ups buy a vehicle; pray you and not the other deployment-happy SO gets chosen”.