Ye, does this means that penal start is viable in 1v1 and all who says otherwise just need to git gud?
No, it means a unit that is not broken in context of the whole army does not need to be fixed and comparing it to a completely different unit with completely different upgrades at completely different timing with completely different army behind it couldn't be any less relevant to that first units performance in context of its own army and support it gets.
No idea why are you pulling penals out of your arse right now, they have their own problems and clearly were not pulling up their weight for the cost once people actually, guess what-have learned to play against them and found out they aren't as OP as certain ultra-vocal forum member made them out to be.
In comparison to that, I can assure you with utmost certainty that people do know how to play vs volks for years, especially now that they have cost that matches their oppressiveness in early game against these very same cons you compare them to.