Looks like we may soon be getting more things to buy using samples and requisition slips. The Catalog Expansion has no cost, and buying it does nothing. The Upgrade Effect text must be null for Catalog Expansion, that field just shows the effect for whichever upgrade was previously selected.
Edit: It's been acknowledged on the official Discord, looks like it's unintended:
ALERT: ROGUE ITEM DETECTED. The Ministry of Truth has confirmation that a rogue item called the "catalog expansion" is temporarily visible in the Ship Management menu and, in accordance with regulations, we instruct all Helldivers to avoid this rogue item until further notice. The Ministry of Truth cannot confirm the reliability or safety of this item, nor can they confirm its origin.
I'm at level 65 and I'd say the whole notion of a single loadout meta died with the OG Railgun. We might have been on the cusp of a Slugger meta when that got nerfed (RIP my beloved, that stagger was so good), but it wasn't as prevalent as the Railgun. I don't see much mech strat usage now, the 10-minute cooldown just feels too long. The mech is less fragile now than it was initially, but the rocket aiming is a lot worse after the most recent changes so it's a real mixed bag. Still potentially worth taking on any mission where you're going to spend a long time on an objective (e.g. civilian extraction, geological survey).
I see a fair amount of variety in loadouts, it's more like there's a range of preferences that end up dictating each player's loadout:
I play on difficulty 7 and agree with everything you said. My typical load out for any of the 40 minute bug missions is typically: Rover, Quasar, Eagle 500kg, Orbital Rail Cannon. If I have to close bug holes, I'll switch the 500kg for the Air Strike. I've also been messing with changing out the Orbital Rail Cannon for the Autocannon Sentry, just because the cooldown is so long (like you mentioned).
If you've gotta kill 2 Bile Titans and 3 Chargers at once, which is pretty common, the Orbital Rail Cannon only does so much.
That's really cool in my opinion. A single load out meta will get boring. I love the autocannon but the backpack is so restricting. I kind of hate the quasar but I have been trying to get better at it because meta. Suppose I'll try more out.