Profile of rumartinez89

I think Hannibal was comparing mp40 volks and ppsh penals. In that instance volks start out with .93 target size once they get the mp40 upgrade, and they end with .72 after vet. So it is sightly better than penals

Not that an extra man and "to the last man" doesn't help penals too, but I think mp40 volks are still a little better cqc w/ the smoke nade

I know Serealia hasn't been updated in a while but they still show the target size to be 1, not sure if the data should be the MP40 or MP44. Now OST AssG have target size of .95 maybe that is what your talking about?
On a similar note PPSH seem to have better stats than AssG SMG by quite a bit. The only downside is the ready aim time which seems to be made up for with superior near burst/moving acc/cooldown.

Trying to get back on topic.

Damage is increased by about 4,5%. This means that you lose about 12,9% damage if the first model drops instead of the 16,6%. Really nothing huge, but okay. Not enough by far for saving PPSh Penals from being UP.

PPSh Penals just show how important RA, stealth and sprint are to CQC squads. MP40 Volks are the only second CQC unit lacking all three, but at the very least they come with smoke on top of the normal Faust and incendiary that Volks carry and better RA when vetted.

PPSh Penals sit somewhere in the middle.
Too large RA for being good at assaulting, no real utility, no ATG backup so you'd still need PTRS Penals at some point. They even come with a commander that gives you PPSh Guards if you want, that do everything PPSh Penals can do but better.

Dont Penals and Volks have the same RA when vetted(according to march 2021 patch notes), both come out to a target size of .77.
Cost from 300 to 290
Reinforce time from 5.4 to 4.5
Veterancy 3 weapon accuracy from +30% to +20%
Veterancy 2 Received accuracy from -15% to -23%

So at VET1 VG is slightly better, VET2 Penals become a beast and VET3 Penals are still better due to increased ACC. Like you said the biggest difference is lack of utility, adding OORAH or smoke nade would make it an actual useful upgrade.
I also agree with your other point, there is no reason for this commander to give PPSH since Guards get it for free and can cloak.. Like I have said in other threads giving Penals access to the PPSH upgrade would make Penal starts viable with more commanders.

Soviet Reserve would give PPSH Penals, Commissar for field healing and AT/MG without backtech.
Advanced warfare would give you radio intercept so you can hold off on PTRS upgrade as long as possible, PPSH Penals, T3485 and the ability to repair them with your penals.
Finally Conscript Support could be renamed to Infantry support with PPSh, KV1 with Penals able to repair and Rapid conscription to keep up with the Assaulting theme of the commander/Penals.

Each commander also has an ability arty/offmap/skill planes to make them attractive for team games. I know there wont be a patch but hell it would be a nice MOD to play so it isn't the exact same commanders everytime.

Depends on what your facing and what faction your playing, as soviets with conscripts an un-upgraded M5 can be quite strong since you will almost always win the attrition battle especially if the cons have any sort of upgrade(SVT, PPSH, dropped weapons).
As Soviet with Penals, USF or UKF it is probably better to upgrade the M5 since the reinforce cost is so much more despite the infantry being stronger. You might win some engagements at first but the heavy bleed required to keep the pressure up may begin to delay your tech.

All advice given was assuming blob vs blob with no time to put down sandbags, MGs, offmaps, arty or any other call in ability.

My side got to be pretty one sided about halfway through the match, however enemy did manage to pull off a couple radio silence flanks that wiped a few units. We were dominating early game so I was able to get KV8 out at 14 min mark, got several good pushes that enemy never fully recovered from. However other side stalled for heavy tanks which allowed them to win back their side. Some good pushes from KV8 forced some reactions while ally bombarded with B4. Eventaully caught a KT out of position so RAM and mark target allowed for quick work and eventaully team surrendered.

I agree with most of what you say if not all. Another issue which hopefully is addressed in COH3 is upgrades with no downsides specifically on mainlines. Why wouldn't you get 7mans, LMGrens, G43 Pfussies and so on, they can snare fight off infantry and provide other utility such as flares or sandbags which is hard to balance. It pretty much makes most elites useless and the elites that are used are usually broken in some way. Using Guards as an example, it can scare off lights, button vehicles with its no downside upgrade and keep efficiency by merging with conscripts. Doing this with shocks is foolish due to loss of armor and horrible Rec ACC vet since they are balanced around having said armor.
I hope they make elites or infantry in general similar to Airborne(Assault)Guards/Paratroopers, these units have multiple upgrades for short/long range or AT. You gain something while also losing and for USF the doctrine gives Paratroopers either demo or mines. These changes add some more choice and thought to what you want to do and how your enemy needs to respond.

Used soviets as an example due to most agreeing they are the strongest or tied with OST.