I don't remember much of the buffs for UKF early... only nerfs on IS & UC. Am I missing something here?
Meta. Sniper/Mortar/CAS.
UKF had strong tools that took tech resources to unlock. That was only possible on teamgames. They would get over run by lack of map control, specially against sniper play. AEC had not been buffed yet against infantry and you couldn't countersnipe at all because recloak times and mechanics were different at that time.
You would be over run by LMG42 Gren spam with sniper support using CAS resource conversion or standard play into PIVs.
The only good points of release UKF were:
-5 man IS with double bren (although it made them into piñatas due to vet3 scoped rifles)
-5 man vet3 cheap RE with attack ground PIATs against heavy/super heavies.
-Crocs and Churchills
-Centaur/Bofors and mortar pits.
-Doctrinal offmap.
As you can see, everything good was late game/team game oriented. Things like Comet/FF didn't had projectiles yet (high accuracy) therefore smoke hardcountered them. FF required expensive Tulips and was the equivalent of playing a B4 to 1 shot vehicles.