THAT WHAT I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SAY FOR 2 YEARS, OKW DOES NOT GET FREE UPGRADES, THE UPGRADES ARE IN THE TECH TREE COST
I HAVE HEARD ENOUGH OF PEOPLE SAYING " UHHE b-b-but OPKW gets freeeeeeee barsssssss and nadesssssss !!!!1111!!!"
to further add the only thing OKW get for "free" are 1 flak AA at tier 4, a more durable reinforce bunker with tier 1 and the access to KT, other faction get similar perks usf has "free" officer and vehicle crews, ukf has 25 pounders and 17 pounder etc
btw, no Soviet upgrade cost have been reduced since last year they pay 10+20+20+85+90
Don't forget flak bunkers in base Those things and USF extra MG bunkers should had been removed several years ago (even if the USF base design is bad overall)
The problem is not how much you end up paying overall throughout the game, it's WHEN AND HOW you are paying for those things. Timing. What you are sacrificing for it.
Ex: USF ends up scaling way beyond if they manage to get their upgrades going on, vetting, teching, etc.
The problem atm is that you will get bully out early on before you can either leverage your upgrades or the free officer. That free officer which is a Rifle with 1 Thompson that takes eons to get build while you try to somehow maintain map control with 3 Rifles + RE vs 4 Volks + SP. There's also healing. Yeah, it's effective on the long run to have a "free" use healing, but early on you can't afford an ambulance and without upgrades you can't really expend munitions.
MP wise, check what slows down each faction. Another ex: if OH and SU specially, had the same base construction as WFA + UKF, they would be beyond OP. Specially Penal opening.
Just to summarise. Complaining about "FREE UPGRADES" is just as stupid as not considering how they get those upgrades an advantage.
And the most stupid mistake is considering things in isolation.