It's an interesting thread, I'd like to put in my tought.
1st let's be clear, atm COH2 is a better game, more maps, more commander, a better meta ? (debatable). Some graphic and sound design that are more enjoyable ? And ofc 6/7 years of constant (at the beggining) support and update.
2nd I myself enjoy COH3 and I'm having fun on it, I play mostly 1v1 but I've played few teamgames this last patch and they seemed fine. At least for my taste. Games felt fun and entertaining.
What the game needs now is MORE MAPS, MORE BATTLEGROUPS and some meta adjustment. Again that's my opinion, i'm a relic spokeperson.
3rd I havnt played COH1 multiplayera lot because I was 10 at the time but was it as heavy tank as COH2? IIRC there are perhing, churchills, tiger, jagpanther and maybe panther (medium/heavy what a question), wich is far less than COH2. So was it also focused on heavy beasts. Feel free to correct me, my knowledge of COH1 is scarce.
From what I'm seeing and reading in these kind of thread it feels, FOR ME, that a lot of you just want COH2.5 or a similar game. Wich is fair enough but I don't think that's what RELIC was planning.
Feel free to agree or disagree with me, i'll be curious to have your tought on this.
I do agree that CoH2 has more heavy call ins, but they also cost fuel.
While in the original CoH they only had a manpower price on them, usually around 1000.
In CoH3 I would say the problem is that they're few with just the 2 Tigers and Black Prince, come in late due to high command points cost for the Wehrmacht Tiger and British Black Prince and also cost a lot of fuel, especially in the case of the DAK Tiger so it seems to be much more practical to just go for more medium tanks instead and there are some pretty good options like the Wehr Panzer IV when fully upgraded, the 76 Sherman is again nice when fully upgraded while for the British I guess it's a toss between the Crusader and M3 Grant with one being cheaper and faster while the other having a bit more "oopmh" in it's damage output. Only the DAK seem to be a bit disadvantaged with the Panzer III being probably the "weakest" of all mediums currently even when fully upgraded.
So in my opinion the game could benefit from a bit more heavy call ins such as the Elefant for the Wehrmacht which historically also makes sense since the Ferdinands that survived Kursk went back to be refurbished in Germany and then were sent off to Italy, and also an M4A3E2 Jumbo with an optional 76mm gun upgrade for the US. In terms of history unlike the Elefant it makes as much sense as the Black Prince since it was only deployed to Europe just in time for the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, but it was a heavily armored "assault" tank which could serve as a nice meatshield for the US in the game.
Other options are once again the M26 Pershing, British A34 Comet and King Tiger for the Wehrmacht. Other fun call ins that would make even less historical sense are the Sturmtiger, Jagdtiger, Jagdpanther, British "Tortoise" heavy assault tank and American T29/95 "Doom turtle" but I'm only mentioning these because of the Black Prince.
All in all there's a lot more room for content considering what I just wrote above, the only question is if Relic are willing to go there and then how to balance everything.