As complicated as it was, it was far more balanced than the lazy man solution we have now in COH 2.
I.... don't think you know what you're talking about.
Infantry combat in CoH1 was extremely imbalanced, between snipers being IWIN against certain factions, zombies and PE infantry from being by far the weakest to by far the most powerful end game anti all blob that couldn't be killed without artillery.
Multiple armor types and affiliated different HP made sure absolutely nothing about infantry combat was in any way balance-able or consistent.