I think the OKW win rate speaks for itself, that the faction is not in the best state.
However this thread was about penals, not the M3.
The faction is in such position becouse it lacks classic mid game AT. At some point it simply is not enough to spam raketens and this is much before panther comes on to the field. Shreck blobs were used to fill that gap before, now people cant use them and didn't learn yet to start to use forgotten okw units that were redeemed useless by shrecks before such as puma, JP4 and something all okw players seem to forget about - the mine.
But yeah, this, the weakness of okw faction, has nothing to do with penals. Just as it has nothing to do with m3s.
Early puchpen is NOT cheap early it translates into 1 less squad in the field.
for faust you need the truck which cost 300 mp. which once again translates into 1 single squad. less
on top of that penals + m3 have complete superiority over you against volks if the situation is equal.
You dont understand the argument because you obviously suck at math.
An m3 in flames is also one squad less. And it doesn't stay on the field, it translates into okw player fuel instead. The tech is mp costly but it is not as costly as for example the tech ostheer needs to get their LV counters. You should also remember that soviets need tech just to build that first m3 or penal... Isn't it a one squad less?
Btw Belive me or not but my math is pretty damn good