No doubt that artillery is called the queen of the battlefield for a reason, but with increased counter-battery effectiveness, mine detection tech (mine clearing grav drones using line charges or firing gravitic pulses into the ground to detonate them?), and the increased use of ortillery (those spinal meson guns will ruin your day even on the ground, as would a few thousand missiles fired off a dedicated ortillery ship), I think the infantryman's life will be plenty hazardous enough on any scale.
Carry it to the logical conclusion and you go two ways: one way takes it to where war is just so unbelievable destructive that everyone gives up as soon as the Fleet jumps in; or the other way means the conflict is more limited to smaller scale skirmishing and surgical commando ops so as to avoid having to waste the place and lose what you might be fighting for.
In the first case you could argue that there might not even be a reason to bother with BD troops; just use drones and grav tanks supported by the fleet until the other side surrenders, or just start mass driver bombardment and then start over with a new planet.
in the second case the need for infantry is greater than ever before because it will be more of a one-on-one affair. In that situation the personal weapon will be decisive and the heavy support tanks and guns will be relegated to the rear as a reserve to use in case you are lucky enough to bottle up all of the enemy in one place where those kinds of weapons will be effective.
IEDs work now because the enemy runs away or hides behind women and children where they know the opposition can't get at them because of being hamstrung by foolish (though I suppose vaguely morally defensible) rules of engagement. So the enemy knows where to plant the bombs and knows the opposing side can't just annihilate the area in retaliation to stop further bombs.
If you don't have that type of situation to deal with, because of less collateral damage avoiding doctrine or a remote area, and you have the will and ability to use the maximum force available to you then all those worries about TDX mines and IEDs are moot. Just level the place until they either surrender or none are left alive.
In Traveller BD works more because the guys who have it are generally going against lower tech fighters and the armor protects the FGMP-wielding Marines. So the Imperium goes in and takes on the bad guys without having to worry about meson bombardments and all.
Against similarly equipped forces, like the Zhodani, the Imperium has to choose between the annihilation of a world in order to save it, or go in and fight more "conventionally" with BD equipped troops and tanks and all the typical combined arms stuff while the really heavy exotic weapons that might end the find in a matter of hours (or less) have to be held back. The few exceptions to this only prove the rule.
So in the end BD is good, best against lower tech but still beatable by it in some cases (like RAM grenades, autocannons, and VRFGG's), but it's not very useful in individual combat (LOL, with FGMP's, or even a PGMP-13 I guess that could be up to 1/4-1/2 a kilometer!) against equal TL weapons. It does help even the odds a wee bit, though.
I've found that it really works best in the RPG environment, not so much in the wargame situation. But even then it all also depends on the ruleset you use. In Striker an average hit with an FGMP-14 (PEN 34) vs TL-15 BD (AV=18) gets you a roll of 7+16= more than the 12+ needed to kill. A Pgmp-13 would generate 14. AN auto cannon would depend on the caliber and velocity + ammo type. Plus, in Striker explosive and energy weapons (including lasers) are bumped one level of damage so a serious wound = kill, etc. This system is more realistic and well-suited to a wargame, but not as RPG friendly in my experience (though I still prefer it for a lot of crunchy gearheady reasons).
But in CT combat there is a chance, slight though it may be that a soldier in BD could survive a hit from an FGMP-15 even if he's wearing nothing. Unless houseruled otherwise it's just a straight 16D6 damage distributed among his 3 main characteristics. A gauss rifle firing a 10 round burst with three chances to hit (and hit it will) would do 3 packets of 4D6, and that I have found to be a real BD nullifier. Not to mention the autocannon or RAM grenade. That's why this system may not be as realistic as Striker, but it's more RPG friendly.
So the BD question is also highly relative to the rules used and what combat doctrine is used against whom.
