Out of scope means nothing. It's like you want to fix some pipes under your sink but you don't have right glue or tape, so you just wrap it with regular tape - bad fix.
Oh god let's not amnesia this point. Your metaphor is strikingly pertinent. I don't disagree.
How do you know M-42 is terrible? How often did you play with it? I did whole month in 1v1 / 2v2 with defensive doctrine and M-42 especially.
Well first off, it has 60/80/100 penetration. It cannot hurt StuG Es from the front. Second of all, the unit in and of itself is different than using it in the live game (especially in teamgames) and comparing to units in a version of the balance preview.
The commanders that the m42 come in are rather interesting indeed. And I won't dispute that you may or may not be able to utilize a unit or doctrine to a strong effect. I would agree that the current meta of light vehicle rushing is the perfect time to toy around with m42 commanders.
But you're right. I wasn't being fair. It's a terrible AT gun against Ostheer. Ostheer is in a much better position to hold off a bit longer for medium tanks instead of light vehicles, when the first T1 unit is revealed. But it does impact Soviet v OKW a great deal. I mean, against OKW, the m42 is actually a great option. The puma, luchs, kubel and all the halftracks have no chance of bouncing the m42.
I think that disparity alone is reason enough to keep the m42 out of T1, or as a stock unit at all.
Also, I built a test mod that made the m42 use the t70 gun and could be garrisoned. I can tell you how that went. I think you were one of the people that played around with that mod too. But that's aside this topic.
M-42 and ZiS don't overlap even in slightest. Different units just like PPSH Cons don't overlap with Shocks.
Even in the slightest? They don't function as AT guns to handle Axis armor and vehicles? Come on now, against OKW especially they overlap.