err. I don't really notice the funding issue. I have 4 assault teams, and I intercept all ufos. I then cannibalize them because selling their fiddly inside bits is fairly profitable, as is selling alien tech, so I almost nearly exceed the funding deficit. Also I'm trying hard to get enough alien materials to build that assault dropship thing.
I have a cluster of two bases and three shipyards clumped together to expedite recovery of alien ship technology, and a production line of 50 engineers in each (two because sometimes one - rarely - is busy building a ship, so the other can continue recovery work). This mitigates my debts (although IIRC, in the original Xcom I always made a PROFIT by playing well, because ostensibly, the governments of the world idolized me and delivered huge riches and fruits and grapes etc for keeping their shores alien-free)
My assault teams are mostly warrant officers, although I had some unfortunate accident and lost one (I have no idea how? glitch?? Or maybe I dozed off and it got shot down???) along with its firebird, so one of them is quite green and mostly corporals and sergeants.
My teams do get shot up quite a lot, but fortunately the unlimited-use handy medical kits come in pretty useful, and I heal all members up to near full before the end of each mission. Usually this involves taking out all but the last alien, hiding the injured around a corner, fighting at range and healing everybody up before the takedown shot. Sometimes I get lucky and cripple the alien so they just cower, which is an even better time for healing.
My elite team (200+ missions) has a team leader armed with a heavy needler. It's a b*tch to use when there's civilians around, but it does give me a chuckle... and like the coilguns, it's pretty much one shot one kill (except in the hands of novices). I'd invest in making more ammo for it, but its being saved up for the ship.
I've pretty much maxxed out all I can do now, and I don't like the way XVI keeps creeping along although I've pretty much secured the world.
Would it be possible to implement some kind of feature for us to reverse the influence of XVI? Perhaps raiding civilian areas and weeding out the infiltrating aliens / human drones. That would add a great element of fun for me.
And perhaps we could get bonus points for weeding out human infiltrators and keeping them alive (ie stunning them) instead of killing them, so that we can potentially "redeem" them in the future through scientific research, and maybe, maybe even recruit them into our forces if they are good specialists at whatever they do.
It might be an idea to give attributes to workers and engineers too -- research ability / production ability -- that increase slowly with time, making recruitment of them important, and opening up the possibility of either employing, or recruiting (see above) a genius-level individual.
Some basic combat ability might be handy too... so when aliens invade my base for instance, we could show a few straggling scientists cowering somewhere, but with a limited ability to defend themselves or even to take the fight to the enemy.