I see your reference to "low value" mechs and I can't help but remember grinding out some very non-optimal variants and opting to skip upgrading to DHS/Endo because I knew I was going to sell the chassis as soon as I finished grinding. Did you see any champion mechs on the IS team? For the next Clan vs. IS test, I would like to see PGI have the locked, stock primes (maybe the first four packs - Kit Fox, Nova, Summoner and Dire Wolf) as available champions to play. That would give the 'non-pay-to-win' people a chance to play a clan mech of each weight class. Unfortunately, wait times could be an issue.
Why on earth would they do that? Ironically a friend in regiment who has only played for a few months grinded his 20 kills in a trial mech. Kudos to him tbh.