I'm sorry but in the situation you are highlighting I'm not convinced a non deathloop mg would survive it either. If you have tons of indirect fire, nades and a blob hitting an mg, I dont care what mg it is, it is going to die.
there is an eventual point when any MG would be saturated yes.. but the maxim has a much lower saturation point before being overwhelmed thanks to the death loop...
theres a good reason why the vets think the deathloop makes the maxim really vulnerable to wipes...
The main issue with the deathloop is when the model pushing the maxim is continually getting sniped most often due to small arms. When you say you can trigger the deathloop intentionally i assumed you meant you could somehow force your squads to target the correct model every time through some micro trick.
Any fool can throw a huge blob at an mg and wipe it before it can get out of range.
thats not the key to triggering the deathloop... the key is to do wide AOE damage in order to damage all models without killing a single model to the point where small arms fire is enough to kill the gunner and the remaining crew in quick succession
I do not think the 6 man weapon team is there to compensate for the deathloop otherwise why do soviet at guns and mortars also have 6 men? This is more of a Soviet themed thing.
yes 6 man weapon teams are a soviet theme... but it doesnt change the fact that the maxim is still relatively easy to wipe with a quick riflenade or a flamenade... many such situations where other MGs would be able to escape the maxim would just faceplant in due to the deathloop...
My suggestion would be something along the lines of giving the maxim gunner a universal cover on retreat sort of like how at guns provide directional green cover to the crew.
that wouldnt solve the deathloop... but yes that would migitate it somewhat... but not entirely