the conclusion is that something needs to be done about the Churchill as it is to much of a jack of all trades.
1. Its armour is super high
2. It's hp is rediculous
3. It is great vs infantry
4. It is great vs tanks
5. It's cheap as peanuts for its performance.
6. It has smoke so even after surviving 12 shots it can just disappear.
7. It has no limit and can be built unlimited times.
Its literally a medium sized king tiger with smoke.
Only the 1st and 2nd points have strong merit. The rest are rather subjective and churchills are certainly no KT. Especially in damage output.
But their armor along with their incredible HP pool is worth noting. While the front armor for the churchill is only 240, it is 290 for the AVRE and Croc. However, the former has 1400 health and the latter two only 1080. Mixing them up ingame can highly skew your opinions: the variants will bounce shots, the stock version won't as much.
However, they all have a rear armor of 180. I don't think there's a single unit that has as much rear armor except perhaps KV tanks. As a result, Churchills often become a trap for flanking maneuvers. (Its rear armor is as strong as P4 front armor.) Instead they are much more easily dealt with by head-on brute force, like most post-EFA designs. Ironically, OKW is probably the least equipped to deal with Churchills since all their capable AT is in their flakHQ.
As a result the unit itself does more to dictate your opponent's strategy than your own, which is probably the most consistently frustrating thing about the whole British faction.