Who expected this? Can you provide a single example of someone saying this?
Once again compare coh3 to coh2 at the same point after their releases. Coh2s playerbase was nowhere near this low 4 months after it's release, and the balance there was pretty terrible too
It's clearly got very little to do with balance
Balance probably isn't even the main issue, I guess. Poorly worded by me. It's content, more than anything else. Content and missing features that should have been there from the beginning. People would be far less annoyed with poor balance if they had a lot more maps, commanders, replays and everything else.
No, I can't give you a single direct quote of anyone expressly saying that they expected the exact same level of polish and content. I suppose the point was directed more at the people who like to conveniently ignore the state of the second game on release and enjoy comparing that game as it is now, to COH 3.
I'm really not excusing it. I just doesn't surprise me.