FF2 and VSH are very similar gamemodes, as such many things are the same such as how to play the classes.
My opinion is based on my experience within the servers, if there is a change within the servers my opinion is also likely to change. Once a person creates an opinion, it usually isn't set in stone. If you believe this is the case, the same can be applied to you.
500 is not low at all. 500 is a decent chunk of health to the hale for a multitude of reasons. With 15 people on the server, backstabs generally do around 750 damage (depending on the bosses health equation). With 10 and under it does do only 500, however, the hales health is already so low even only getting that 500 damage, a decent amount of health is removed.
2 crutches instead of 3 doesn't make it much better, but I'll ignore that for now. As for the soldier set you've mentioned, that is literally the strongest possible soldier set. Since the direct hit can only get crits, taunting to recieve minicrits actually gives full crits. Mantreads are very effective, I understand they were nerfed recently, however they are still VERY strong and are very easy to use to get a market garden (reason why they're called the crutchtreads).
What risk are you talking about? Is it simply because spy and trolldier need to get close to the hale? You have the dead ringer, which gives you a get out of jail free card, as well as the kunai, which on backstab lets you take a free hit. So the risk factor for playing this type of spy is LOW, if anything damage should be reduced for using the dead ringer, not increased. Market gardens do require you to get close to the hale, but a rocket jumping soldier is the MOST mobile class in the entire game. More than a scout, once you get beside the boss you can instantly jump to the other side of the map. Simply market when the hale is distracted, market, then jump away. Not hard to get multiple in a match, 500 damage is more than fine.
By that i meant throwing around insults, such as my ego is overwhelming my opinion, which you've now explained what you specifically meant.