you probably never played a serious match. what difficulty do you play on? tried any online games? you are just impressed by their hitpoints and attack. but the population slot and cost they take up renders them useless.
there are far more cost effective and population effective units to use. 400gold and 4 population is useless. why wouldn’t one use sowars or gurkhas to counter infantry?
Its a age2 card because when thr game released (tad) it unlocked jatlancers in age2, it was absolutely broken so they moved the unit to age3, but decided to keep the card in colonial age.