Yeah; part of my asking for us to display helper squads is to raise awareness of the BS of this scaling system. Also, does anybody have my Helper Squad available? If my squad isn't affected by your scaling system (your helper squad being level capped), then I believe that without the Affection Bonus, it should show to have a power level of about 75k (75,464 for exact numbers).
Right now, nobody has a definite answer to equipment being carried over; we think it does, but obviously, we can't confirm it.
Edit: Now that I think about it, it'd actually be super interesting to see how all of our squads look before and after when affected just by the scaling system alone. Pics plz!