Lets take this hypothetical situation here where you've built a half track (Oops Brits, USF, OKW can't do that non-doc) and are attempting to push a point. First if your opponent has an AT gun or snares. Your HT either need to leave and your push has failed immediately due to being zoned or just dying (Along with half your infantry too probably).
Granted, only SOV and OST have troop carriers nondoctrinally. Of course, that's fine because blizzards aren't a part of gameplay normally so it's not necessary. Blizzard gameplay wasn't part of how WFA factions were designed so yeah fair enough.
That push didn't actually fail. You can still exit the troops out of the vehicle, you know. Cold doesn't instantly kill units. Like I've said, all you need to do is get into cover to halt loss of heat.
But lets say it doesn't happen. So you've spent 30 Fuel on a halftrack to ferry units into battle against an enemy who has hunkered down and is in prime defensive mode. So you still lose probably in the infantry fight, but your opponent has also built an LV and is currently kicking the teeth in of your infantry who have no support because you drove out of range of your support weapons because it's a blizzard and you're attacking.
Again, you make a fair point. Considering that the game, as it is now, is not balanced around blizzard play, it makes more sense to rush an armored vehicle as always. Ideally if there was some sort of effort to make blizzards an automatch thing again (which there isn't so this is just hypothetical.) there would be some sort of attempt made to make infantry carriers available to all the factions. Maybe not the regular ones that have reinforce capabilities but just a transport truck that's cheaper on fuel and manpower somehow.
Okay, okay. Lets say they didn't build an LV, and they had a light defense and you pushed them off. Great! So you've built a HT that doesn't do anything outside of blizzards and now your opponent has a 1:20 advantage on his first medium tank that he's going to use to kick your teeth in later... Well shit.
Well yes. As the game is now that is certainly the case, I don't disagree. Of course, though, the idea of a Halftrack/infantry carrier is that it's faster than walking. Outside of blizzards you could micro it in such a way as to bring reinforced squads back onto the frontline faster.
Cold tech doesn't work. You can't be aggressive. You have to hunker down and wait or you just lose and that absolutely sucks to play. For all the visual thematics of it. If the mechanic feels like garbage to actually experience it's not a good mechanic. Slowdown feels awful and makes defensive play stronger, blizzards lowering vision makes accidently wandering into a defensive position easier, the random application of it nullifies aggression and punishes players who are winning. Everything about it is bad apart from that fact it looks cool and that's not a good enough reason to have it.
I do agree that the random aspect of it is unfair, it would be better if there was some way to know a blizzard is on the way besides the 30second timer (at least I think it's 30 seconds). Like maybe it's a constant cycle, a few minutes clear then a minute or two blizzard or something like that.
Again I have to disagree with you. I always thought blizzards had the ability for interesting emergent gameplay. Firepits aren't very durable, for example. I had a cute idea of assaulting a point with a t34 in a blizzard and I just targeted the firepit and cover and scattered the enemy troops. Also, the static posisions make purchasing a sniper more interesting. You can use the sniper who doesn't lose heat to scout for targets for artillery pieces. (At least I'm pretty sure the sniper doesn't lose heat. I know it was a thing in story mode but I'm not at my computer to check)
And of course mechanized assaults (perhaps a minesweeper engineer + con squad in a leading Halftrack followed by t34 etc.) I really do think that people give blizzards a bad rap, worse than it really deserves.