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I can agree to most of the bullet points. Some additions though:
- The Tiger armor effect can be decently asessed. Against unvetted Allied TDs, 2 P4s need 8 penetrations to die while the Tiger has an expectancy value of 9,5. Against higher pen units, this will go more unfavourably for the Tiger, lower pen will make it more favourable. All this will then be tilted towards mediums due to the lower target size, the effect of this is very hard to check though.
- 2 P4s can potentially dish out more damage, however this is again armor dependent. Against low armor targets they are better, against high armor targets this bonus is almost completely gone. They have approximately half of the penetration of the Tiger, making them half as likely to pen against every unit with more armor than ~200.
- Tiger has higher base accuracy by about 5-10% at ranges 20-40 and lower scatter, so it's chance to hit is a fair bit higher. This chance is not armor dependent and will always work better than 2 P4s.
- One additional point pro Tiger is the +5/+10 range. The short range of mediums compared to Allied TDs has always been a point of criticism from Axis players. At least the 50 range allow the Tiger to quickly shoot back quicker and give less margin for error for Allied TDs, while the P4 needs to traverse 20 meters under fire to be able to punish TDs.
- As MMX already pointed out, P4s allow focused fire and therefore the higher firing volume can be negated quicker and you are more likely to lose resources.
I'll point something out since there seem to be some misconceptions:
I have never said that the Tiger is still the be all end all and best choice in all circumstances and should be taken over 2 P4s any time. This is clearly not the case. But the Tiger like all heavies seems to be in a better spot now than before, because this was exactly his role pre patch: The one and only choice that you had to make if you wanted a chance to win the late game. Previously there was no choice between these two play styles, heavies were just straight up better, also in team games (actually especially in team games because the walls of ATGs and TDs could often delete a medium within seconds. Seeing 3-4 anti tank units per player is often normal).
This is also why I disagree with the rest of you post. Yes, the Tiger is on 5 Commanders, but:
1. not all of them were played equally.
2. Diversity is not defined solely by commander use
Right now, mediums see way more play again. From what I can tell also again in larger modes. The fact alone that not everyone is locked in into 2 doctrines that have a heavy anymore makes the game more diverse in a different aspect. The current meta is also not perfect, but I would not say it is worse than previously.