Unless you play osttruppen into fast T2 vs brits, you don't really have any initiative in the first place.
Until T2 is up its all about not losing your native fuel.
You can be more aggressive to a point if you get early sniper only.
Ost never was dictating(or even meant to) pace of early game unless it was OP AF(first month HMG42 into flame HT or march deployment grens).
Vs sov, its really who plays better.
Vs USF it was always a struggle, because USF can do only one single unit, which needs to be strong enough to overcome grens+support.
Vs brits they do extremely well with osttruppen and underpriced 222.
Plus, Hans seems to be doing just fine.
Its not about losing unitiative, because there is only one MU where ost have it, but about not losing T2 tech race by not losing fuel early on.
Minor problem.
Ostheer can hold as long as they like vs USSR and USF because they are also not too good at holding land. This means Ostheer can hold, then counter attack (Defensive vs Offensive)
On the other hand, holding against UKF guarantees you a mortar emplacement and bofor outside your base. So you kinda need to push, but then cant push but need to push. Mortar emplacements have no counter (Mortar emplacement >>>>>> Mortar team) for Ost, and have sufficient range to threaten more than just the VPs and fuel if you are too defensive.