Nyain San and you don't use a Rail Rifle

Well played.

I have a different proposal:
Make faction-specific weapon bonuses weapon-agnostic.
No, I'm not talking about eroding faction identity. I'm talking about, for example, Caldari giving every weapon a bonus to ranged combat properties, while Gallente assaults get a bonus to the close combat capabilities of any weapon. I you had unlimited dev time, I'd propose reliability upgrades for weapons equipped by Minmatar (Stuff like removing overheating at the cost of rate of fire) and making Amarr equipped weapons more unwieldy (Higher damage on an AR while causing faster heat build up, a higer RoF CR that jams when you pull the trigger in the wrong rhythm too many times, etc.).
The reason is simple: Customization
While I like the basic idea of having bonuses racially aligned, I have come to realize that this is not how a merc would work. If I'm using an explosive weapon, I'll want to use a scrambler pistol as a sidearm, for example. I would not want to use another gun with armor damage.
But that's what the current bonuses would do - pigeonhold all the assault suits.

On the one hand, it's nice to know that Gallente assaults will erode your shield tank, while Minmatar assaults will struggle against you. It really works wonders against my dislike of the fact that we have both tanking profiles as well as damage profiles, which is imo a combination that has no tactical value whatsoever and just stupidly randomizes encounters.
On the other hand, why wouldn't a Minmatar merc (As in: Immortal sociopathic mercenary) get a sidearm specifically for the purpose of removing an enemy's shields? I mean, I guess that an Amarr dude would not use an explosive sidearm due to the whole religious dogma and hatred of Minmatar thing (Then again, it might be internally justified for the merc as the killing blow somehow being worth less than the destruction of the enemy's shield or something - The typical kind of excuse people use to justify hypocrisy), but generally mercs really don't care enough to limit themselves like that.

Gone. Assaults aren't about brick tanking. They typically, drawing from EVE based ships, at fast moving, DPS platforms.