Played a few thousand games on vcoh, went full re...coh2! and played a few more games there.

i ONCE tried to play a vcoh game and i have to, i never, ever want to go back. So many things that definately improved (capping for instance, more destructable reverse....graphics

)
The only thing that i miss is Panzerelite and its vet system (not the shared vet).
The commander tree was a llittlle more flexible, but in itself very static. You have every option at once, in coh2 you have to pick carefully and if you pick non meta commandery, you should consider your playstyle / tactic that comes with it.
To the optimization problems, well coh2 is out for 2 years and descent hardware got stronger and / or purchasable over time.
The downsize is that you either have to pay for commanders or get lucky warspoil drops. Not everyones taste...