Profile of Hannibal

At best a short single player campaign or coop missions.

Just no. Launch price for Western Front armies was 20 € (or 13 € for one faction). Even adjusting for inflation since CoH2's launch that's about 24 € today. The DLC should have included the content worth of at least one faction + a smaller goodie (some scripted missions or whatever).

Or it means that their entire focus for this patch was (still) on "fix the game" rather than "add new content". I'm sure that Relic's resources are now much tighter compared to pre-launch, but it doesn't mean that their team is too small now to save CoH3

I can only judge on what they show. There's nothing wrong with the patch, but it just feels like "just another one" as the ones before it. They try to tackle some frequently criticised issues, but is it enough to draw in players long-term? I'd doubt it. Some points on the list are very vague. They could be major reworks or just polishing. We don't know, but given Relic's record since launch and tendency to oversell their patches, I guess they are not extensive.

Help me out here, what exactly was the great march 2014 update? I could have sworn that was the patch where they just released two new doctrines with Wehr Puma and Soviet M4C Sherman in order to promote the upcoming WFA DLC. And at that point CoH2 multiplayer was in a pretty "hated" & unpopular state because of the blatant pay2win crap going on

A complete rework of infantry interaction coupled with a decently sized patch. You're right if you want to take the point literally: This one patch did not single-handedly save CoH2. There was a series of updates in 2014 up to 2015 that lead to a steady increase in the player base. The multiplayer before might have been unpopular, but yet CoH2 back then was despite all its problems still more popular than CoH3 currently is.
But I meant it figuratively: The march deployment patch is seen as a major turn-around for CoH2.
Relic needs some ambitious patches if they want the player base back. The best fitting explanation for the current speed and ambition of the patches is that the CoH3 team has been shrunk considerably. They don't have the capacity anymore to deliver larger patches without sacrificing frequency of updates. I believe they are doing the best they can. Relic has gotten a LOT better in understanding CoH3's problems and they finally try to address them unlike during their post-launch disaster. It's not a lack of talent, nor does the Coh3 team appear unmotivated. It's just literally the best they can do with a small team.
This small team is the result of losing so many players after launch and basically doing nothing in the first half year, which I assume lead to a management decision to reduce further investment into CoH3 and provide less support for the game than would be necessary.
Those small patches will likely not win back the large player base that this game actually has. How much time is left until the development of the main game will be stopped completely? Maybe one or two more years? That would be a normal cycle for a game, with increasingly dwindling resources over time.
If this patch + DLC doesn't permanently increase the player numbers and/or trickle back, that's another 2-3 months lost until the next patch is released. Even if they somehow manage afterwards, the player base won't be huge by the time they actually stop development.

Pushing out updates more frequently than Relic itself - good job!

Setting of that game.

Drag queens are the "heroes" of it.

They made a game that appeals to 0.000001% of population and are wondering why it flopped at reception.

I only watched a couple of videos about it, but the characters don't look hugely different from overwatch or similar games.

They just made a bad game that you mostly could have played already years ago. The world only needs so few oversaturated color palette games with exaggerated "laid back" characters.

I find it a bit odd that you throw a map like Essen Steelworks or Winnekendonk into the same pool with Redball or Rails. The first two definitely have their own character left and have to be played different than the latter two

I don't find Winnekendonk very special. The most interesting parts are the cut-off placement with close by sight blockers and the VP in the village. The middle VP that usually sees the most action, but layout and cover placement is pretty generic, so are most of the field areas around it. The VP near the lumber camp has some minor alterations and corners to cut which is nice, the lumber camp fuel is again pretty standard. Every map has something "special", Winnekendonk too, but >80% is still the standard build order with standard open area and cover placement map. What I like is that there is not too much of a pre-defined "lane" in this map. Visually it just looks the same as any other "field and hedgerow" map, either.
Essen is somewhat special with defined and fairly enclosed fighting areas, but again the whole strip from base to base including the middle VP is fairly standard. The enclosed areas open up once vehicles arrive and then also become pretty samey to what you'd see on other maps. I like the placement of the munition points though that are often neglected but can create diversion and the overall atmosphere is great, but I just don't see why I should heavily deviate from the "standard" build order and standard commanders to play that map, because it's not special enough for that.