[Raellus]

In addition to the excellent points already raised:

It might also have something to do with trying to cover a lot of frontage with far fewer troops and combat vehicles than the textbooks or common sense calls for (this is part of the cantonment system as well).

Look at one of the campaign maps. If all of those late-war units designated as "divisions" were consolidated into true divisions of close to pre-war size, there'd be huge gaps on the map. Break up each true division into smaller chunks to cover the space, and you basically end up with what T2K calls a division.

With units so spread out, and modern communications systems severely compromised, it might make logistical and command & control sense to keep the existing divisional structure even though the units that you are calling divisions are much weaker than they should be.

Furthermore, it would be much harder for a proper division to sustain itself. Smaller "divisions" would have an easier time feeding and fueling themselves.

Think about what the Wehrmacht had to do in the last few months of WWII. Many German divisions were divisions in name only and yet quite a few of them managed to put up quite a fight. If Allied armies had been in the same shape, the war could have gone on for years. This is kind of what the situation is in the T2K 'verse.