There were a lot of things that made maxim spam viable in the maxim spam glory days. Squad spacing was wide and limited grenade damage, turning speed was high, ostheer sniper had low health, low small arms fire DPS led to increased benefit of suppressing squads over killing them with rifles and limited the effectiveness of flanking the maxim.
All these things have changed. The turning speed of the maxim was reduced, effectively making it less effective than the MG42 at targeting squads that attack from the front (smaller arch), but more effective at targeting squads that did wide flanks (faster repositioning). Squad clumping was added in, making the maxim vulnerable to arty and rifle grenades (the #1 reason why you hardly saw any maxims made last patch). The Ostheer sniper was buffed enormously. The result was that maxim spam was dead, and that maxims in general were hardly seen as people preferred to just make more conscripts rather than with a HMG that could be rifle grenaded to death from the front with ease.
The maxim _was not_ a good unit last patch, and I do not see why it should remain that way when other HMGs are actually made very potent for once. Things like fast pack-up speed are useless* when the MG can't even suppress 2 squads walking hand-in-hand towards it.
*not completely useless, as you can retreat faster from those squads who walked right in front of your HMG. Oh joy, what an advantage.
Ill have to partially disagree. Ill give you the spacing and less lethal nades, alright. But you forgot to mention that the received accuracy modifier that was above 1 got removed some patches ago, not entirely making up for the clumping but slightly compensating for it. The clumping isnt really a problem that is solely witnessed when using maxims. Its just when you use them and they do clump, they make an easy high priority target. Id rifle nade a clumped maxim over a clumped con squad any day if id only have 1 nade and id have to choose. Why? Cause the maxim can suppress me. Same reason youd throw your molotov at the mg42 first before you throw one at a gren squad, if you could choose. Normal rifle nades are somewhat avoidable if the maxim has con support. Vet 2 grens are where the real problem begins.
Ill also have to disagree that you can walk hand in hand into the maxim head on. Tried it. Failed at least 10 times. Faced it myself and shut it down accordingly. Yes, it does require more micro to pin 2 blobbed squads frontally with a maxim than it does with an mg42 but it is well within the range of possible things.
Imo the maxim is a good mg. Maybe not great, but not fucking arse either. It simply underwent a change of functionality if you wanna call it that. Ppl used to run into you head on with a maxim, then set it up and start suppressing you. Of couse that wont work anymore with the nerfed pack up and setup times. And thats a good thing in my book because that shit was just way too annoying for how easy it was to execute. I feel the maxim is now more of an actual support weapon than it is the assault weapon of past times. You screen for it with cons and then suppress whatever squad theyre fighting. Squad is suppressed? Good, let the cons deal with it so those guys dont get back up and focus on the next one. That way you can also stay at max range and if someone decides to run at your mg, hes gonna have your cons in his back, inevitably starting to lose models.
Also, dont forget the super nazi bunker concrete buildings on some maps like shittelbruck. The trainyard there actually takes 2 full barrages from a walking stuka before it goes down. Add on top of that the same ark as an mg42 inside buildings, but still a faster setup time to switch windows and the fact the germans dont have molotovs and wont make it close to you with flamethrowers if you micro your maxim and youre gonna have one hell of a time until tanks arrive.
I feel overall the maxim is much more of a defensive mg these days but if you use it as such it can be a great help to your conscripts and guards/shocks.
Ill have to agree with you on the sniper. I have yet to play against wehrmacht snipers since they were buffed, but I used them a few times myself whenever somebody spammed team weapons and man, they performed well. Even survived a near direct hit from a 120mm once. lol
- and in lategame you got plenty of tank options with very good aoe stats or, should you decide to go t4, the new su76 with its free barrage/the katyusha. 
Relic Entertainment
cblanco ★ 
보드카 중대 
VonManteuffel 
Heartless Jäger 
