Many things could have been balanced around OKW, even if they had kept the resource penalty. However, there is one thing that would probably not work out that well: Fuel/Ammo supply drops. An OKW player that picks these drops would get an inflated amount of resources from it.
The best way to address that, while still giving a semblance of "rare" vehicles would be to 1) remove the resource penalty and 2) simply bump the fuel/ammo prices of pretty much everything.
Personally, I think they should have messed around with removing the resource penalty but making penalties be inflicted for getting tech, upgrades and vehicles. Like the Tiger Ace, the contributing tech/upgrade/vehicle's penalty is removed for losing it. Also, veterancy requirements would be significantly reduced while their bonuses are less powerful (I'd mostly say the current power of their vet bonuses are proper to what I imagine). Thus, there would be penalties to still particularly encourage preservation for OKW while making their losses less unrecoverable.
But yeah, supply drops just break the system over its knee.