The way we played (A and pre-A)D&D, tactics were greatly rewarded. Caltrops, bags of flower, 10 ft. poles, and hemp rope were all very handy. Sometimes even in combat.
PARANOIA seems to reward rhetorical tactics rather than combat positioning. You are certainly playing a strategy game, but it's a political intrigue survivor rather than a superhero wargame.
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Anyway, as to why combat tactics should be rewarded more than build strategy: because it's easier to change combat tactics, so learning stuff is more easily rewarded. "Builds" are more static, so if you make a bad choice, that means you have to suffer the effects of that bad choice for a whole level... or if the bad choice was in your stats, you have to suffer the effects of that bad choice forever.
Cheers, -- N