For what my input is worth, I rather like the stats. While I have yet to get to the Marian Era (obviously) I find that my trusty Camillan Legions perform roughly comparably as well in 1.0 as in 0.8x. And sometimes I think people get mislead a lot by the numbers, as units that look mediocre seem to perform beyond expectations. Or maybe it could be because I love to use guard mode. Hastati or Principes in guard mode rock as far as pinning even quality units down, Gaesetae included, though they WILL lose, and quite handily after a while if you don't get the support in (ie roll up the weaker flank of the enemy). Maybe people expect something different out of legions of any era, but for me the obivious advantage of playing Romani is this: from top to bottom, even in the Camillan Era, the Roman army's infantry units are pretty even in quality, and even though the difference in quality is evident at the Camillan stage of the game, it is nowhere near as great as, say, the difference between Levy Hoplites, Standard Hoplites, and Elite Hoplites like Spatiatoi or Syrakousoi. That means that a Roman player has no truly weak flank, and as such can reasonably expect the flank facing the stiffest competition to hold out long enough for the side facing inferior opponents to chew through that flank, at which point the battle is over. Of course, if that DOESN'T happen you're screwed six ways from Sunday. But then that's where superior tactics comes into play, no? Which goes to show that the Roman's best asset was tactics and logistics, plus a certain societal mindset, as has already been stated in this thread previously.
That being said, IF the Evocata are practically identical to standard Marian legions, then I guess I just won't recruit them. I see no problem in giving them one or two more points of attack and defense skill to represent the first term of service. Though I will hardly weep if that is not done.