I'm not going to get into this too much but OKW is the one faction you can sit on your ass with and play as sloppy as you want for the first 15 minutes of the game and still pull off a win. It's got more get out of jail free cards than the Rothschild family.
You mean the laser tanks and the mutant zombie soldiers? Those aren't actually allowed in multiplayer unfortunately
In multiplayer games there aren't any get out of jail free cards - unless you're referring to choosing a late-game doctrine or hoping your opponent plays poorly. Falling behind in the early-mid game leads to a vicious snowball. If the OKW player is "playing as sloppily as he wants" he wouldn't have any map control and wouldn't be able to preserve veterancy on his squads. Try this in cheatmode: Three squads of Vet 0 Volks in close range vs Vet 3 double barred rifleman squad. That's what will happen when an OKW player "plays as sloppily as he wants".
You see, multiplayer games play very differently from the ones in your imagination. Veterancy bonuses significantly increase the power of a squad or unit without any increase in cost. You also need to capture territory to increase your fuel and munitions income.
In COH2 multiplayer most of us like to
Get Vehicles -> Bleed/Wipe the enemy -> Get more Map Control -> acquire more powerful army
It's common for players to win games with just the T70, or even worse, just the m20. Feel free to come back with your balance opinions when you've actually tried COH2 multiplayer.