Does it really cost more if we take into account all upgrades and tech? At the end of the day each faction functions differently, has it own strengths and weakness and have to be balance accordingly. I think we are going too far away of the point. To make it clear:
OP premise: should KT require all tech buildings up?
1-It could BUT other adjustments to teching should be done. (free medics, payed Flaked, some tech elements been more accessible, replacing trucks not as hard*)
*This is roughly what Smith says on other post that you might miss as thinking just "nerf OKW"
You: "USF should pay as well" and you mention some OH points.
2- As i said, i don't think that the "free" squad is as breaking as such. In regards to OH, i don't think that there's an issue on the EARLY to mid game, but i'm on favor of some kind of late upgrade for both eastern front armies (T4) to compensate for the powercreep since WFA + UKF. In case of OH, a 5th man upgrade for Gren/Pio locked down behind BP3 (simil cost to UKF).
The point I replied to was not on topic in the first place, using it now to arbitrarily shut down my argument is pretty disingenuous at best. I never accused you of demanding nothing but OKW-nerfs, so there's no need to claim that either.
Regarding your second point, I have to heavily disagree. Especially Ostheer can easily hold its own and in he hands of a good player take the initiative, if your infantry game is beyond perfect. The struggles don't come from a bad lategame (although the teching requirements are quite ridiculous compared to what you get out of it), but from the fact that the combination of weak infantry, low field presence, and higher manpower upkeep doesn't allow you to keep up with the enemy.
Riflemen easily dictate the flow of the game in any situation in a 1v1, if you don't make many mistakes with them. Meanwhile, especially Grens (although other Ostheer infantry suffers from this to a lesser extent as well) are entirely reactive. They don't allow you to actually attack, unstead of just filling out the places where your enemy isn't showing up in force. And that gets only worse later on, once BARs are hitting the field. Your enemies have better survivability, higher field presence, higher damage outputs (except for Conscripts and some builder units like Combat Engineers), and also better mobility.
These problems are of course not a part of the topic at hand, but the entire point we were discussing weren't part of that in the first place...