That's absolutely untrue. The Maxim used to be so OP that it could end games before 6min mark and now it's in its "normal" place. Comparing it to the Maschinengewehr-42 is straight up retarded since the two vanilla factions have completely different scopes and tools to do so. And if we attempt to start this discussion we would end up again arguing about how asymmetrical both factions are, the fact that OST has 4 men squads while SOV can have 7 men cons, OST has ATG that only shoots vehicles whilst SOV has Zis etc.
That's the tool SOV have. Like it, not like it, it does not matter. It will never be a MG42 vol. II so let's just stop with this.
I'm sorry but I can see the point you think you are making, but honestly it comes across so poorly it you only further reinforce my belief that the Maxim is awful from a statistical aspect.
Asymmetry is fine. However, there still needs to be a baseline for unit performance. HMG's need to suppress etc The Maxim falls short.