Where were you when the balance team started to nerf Maxim or the SU-76 barrage? And probably many other examples I haven't in mind. People simply built them more.
I dont know about which universe you are talking about, do you even play 1v1? maxim nerf was necessary and pretty much killed the strat, same with su76. I havent seen a single competetive game spamming either since then.
Even if you find a few examples where a nerf lead to more use (and i cant think of a single one), what about the countless counter examples? like 222 cost increase, jli nerf, m20 nerf, heavy/call in tank meta, falls faust change etc
Arguing that you cant nerf a unit in a meaningfull way cause people are "forced" to use more of them just does not make sense... this logic is mind boggling
The global cooldown is worth a try