I played a huge number of USF games this patch in 1v1, and i honestly have no idea how you are supposed to play. I can beat bad players,yes but againts people in the top 50-100 i have completely no chance. I can easily beat them or atleast have a fun and equal game againts them with any other faction, but if im USF, i get completely stomped.
My wins are from this patch for real bar maybe 1 game from previous patch. I've been playing 1v1 quite a lot since the patch seriously and i've enjoyed it a lot more now. Even using things like Mechanized commander in 1v1 has been quite enjoyable. I actually fully agree with you USF are not as easy to play. But I think all the abilities and strengths are there to win. It's a lot more micro intensive than axis.
I wouldn't say that there are a bad faction or even underpowered however.
I learn because I've been watching a lot of the live games, OMG pop etc. I've been doing a lot more casting than playing recently and because i've been doing that i've seen a lot of really good ways to utilise USF units. And when I implement that myself I actually USF to be quite potent. The main thing about USF that I discovered is that you don't even need T4 for most of the game. The USF AT gun is so so strong against axis atm, especially medic build to JP4 because of it's sight range. The kind of manpower USF has and the bar/zook cost now means you can have multipurpose infantry all over the battlefield.