I do think the uniformity was intentional, or at least I can see how it plays into the grand scheme of things. Galbadia is a military dictatorship, and it's soldiers are just going to have more uniformity to them than the special forces or departments of the Shinra corporation such as the Turks. They become more faceless and less interesting to the players though considering even the soldiers given personality and dialogue look like everyone else.

One thing I do find interesting about Galbadian soldiers is how incompetent (or even possibly uncaring) they are. I feel like the soldiers themselves get duped pretty easily and often come off as idiotic. This is just interesting just considering Galbadia's wiki claims that the Ultimania does say Galbadian soldiers are strong and highly trained (this is how even basic soldiers can use para-magic I guess). They get a lot of recruits from the Galbadia Garden if I remember right, and what we see there seems pretty strict and more focused than what we have at Balamb.

I do wonder if part of the incompetency comes from the army turning out to be kind of a bad fate to find yourself in. For one, a person could have their pay docked for practically any reason at all, creating a sense of insecurity. But people probably can't simply up and leave the army either (and it only happens at the end of the game because Galbadia has crumbled under the rule of Seifer and Ultimecia). Part of it might also come from the fact that a lot of power was simply thrust on Galbadia during the Sorceress war, and there wasn't really anyone to stand up to them afterwards since they had that power. Let's say they were very highly trained during that war because they had to be, but afterwards the world was in a state where no one really could stand up to Galbadia. Look at Timber, a city full of rebels but none of them really know what they are doing (for instance, why have a bunch of small rebel factions rather than coming together as a town to overthrow Galbadian rule?). They have no threat to worry about after the Sorceress War, so they probably grow cocky and lazy.

Of course, the world of FFVIII is full of incompetency really. Balamb is run by a coward and a lire really, I already discussed Timber, Galbadian soldiers are not only incompetent, but the president Vinzer Deling pretty quickly started working with a sorceress like Edea (I'd assume for an easy one way ticket to hold onto world domination) when it was pretty obvious it would probably backfire on him.

Ok, I'm going to stop talking now. Galbadia interests me quite a bit, though.