Reiterating my thoughts in the slot thread, the HP is preferable. It buffs all assault suits at all tiers, unlike the extra slot, which only buffs higher tiers.

Firstly, that word "concession", I do not think it means what you think it means.

Secondly, your first point, however accurate, doesn't change the fact that the logi & scout suit users are both able to fit whatever they want without the need to sacrifice anything essential, whilst the assault suit users aren't.
You're essentially saying: Look at these 2 suits, everyone that uses them can choose to fit everything they want on it & we don't want that, it's not balanced. Therefore the users of this other suit should be unable to fit everything they want on it b/c then we'd have 3 suits that aren't balanced.

As the users of logi / scout / heavy suits don't "have to think about how they want to build their loadouts." resulting in them just shield / armour tanking w/ damage mods / regen mods. I don't see why assault suit users aren't entitled to do the same. If anyone should be able to tank HP + regen efficiently it should be the heavies & assaults, not the logis & scouts.

Thirdly, your second point is also flawed. The Cal & Min layouts differ whilst the Gal & Amarr layouts are the same. This will still be the case w/ hotfix Charlie only the MinAssault layout will be the same as the Minlogi & the MinScout (In principle) as opposed to the 5-2 layout it has now (Which no one wanted).
So a slot increase would actually do the complete opposite of what you said; lol @ how having an even no. of slots would "serve to blur the very racial identities the proposed 7 slot layouts were designed to showcase, as well as disrupting their symmetry." 8 slots is without a doubt better for that purpose.

A minor buff won't cut it, if the assaults aren't given a buff in multiple areas (mainly ones that result in increased survivability) scouts will continue to dominate the assaults in combat, like the logis did for a year.