Let me flip the script on you.
Panther in t3. What does that do to the 34/76? You could use zis and to a lesser degree guards, but it makes building a t34 a waste of resources. Nothing wrong with the 85. It's just the timing thing. Buff the 76. I care not. But putting an 85 in t3 will lead to every ostheer player skipping t3. Put it in t4. That's fine... sort of. The regular mediums need a minute before the big mediums come out.
I think it's faction design. A few good units vs a mass of not quite so good units.
Are people really saying the t34/85 is similar to a panther and defending the existence of the t34? Which even more useless than a p4? Was there a patch i didn't hear about?
Refer to this quote, Glendizzle.
I wrote paragraphs upon paragraphs explaining why the T-34/85 is not a "big medium". It's not Panther tier. Panther is the only tank that is Panther tier. Being slightly better than Panzer IV while being worse in many ways doesn't make a tank "big medium". Panther in Ost T3 is pants on head insane and if you think the two are any bit comparable, you need a reality check.
T-34/85 won't make Panzer IV useless. If it would make it useless, it would already be doing it, more easily, being a CP10 unit instead of a T3 unit, an upgrade which costs resources. Hitting T3 doesn't magically give you the resources to build your tank, saving until CP10 does.
And it's horrible faction design. Soviets can't afford more tanks than Germans do. Speaking by cost, a matchup would be 5 T-34/76 vs 4 Panzer IV for the same price, except the T-34's cost more in MP combined and will get absolutely get creamed because they are so pathetic. Such a matchup never happens and German tanks are never outnumbered when you build units at a similar price range.
Buffing the 76 is replacing it with 85 as it is wrong that 85 is doctrinal in the first place. 85 is balanced against Panzer IV and in general. Also, saying that it would be okay at T4 really shows your experience with Soviets. I wanted to avoid personally attacking you, but you should know that Soviet T4 is not more expensive or available later than T3 and is already far, far superior. The difference is insane. Just like the difference between 85 and Panther is.
For the billionth time: T-34/85 should get its slightly better raw stats at a slightly higher cost compared to Panzer IV while Panzer IV gets far superior veterancy, an MG upgrade, and many other support including Panzer Tactician completely unavailable to Soviets with no analogue. Axis already has it better, and you want the status quo to remain as it is, which is to give Soviets an even worse main battle tank with zero gimmicks unless players pick a certain doctrine and avoid T3. Guess what happens? People play Guards Motor and skip T3, or go for IS-2 and skip mediums alltogether. Nobody bothers with 76 because its both weaker and with absolutely no proper support or gimmicks besides a gimped ram and horrible veterancy, and you have the nerve to say that's balanced while acting offended at the notion of being called an Axis warrior.
If you are okay with Soviets having both the worse stock medium multipurpose tank and the worse supporting abilities, Axis warrior is what you are. Now, until you read the earlier posts where I explained in detail to multiple people over multiple posts that "85 invalidates T3" is utter nonsense, I will not respond to you again. At this rate you're only repeating yourself and being an annoyance. If your Panzer IVs are made utterly useless by enemy 85's, the problem is between the screen and the chair. They have more than enough to go by with, unlike poor 76. I know this because I switched to Ostheer. Discussing with people who can't stand the thought of an Allied unit better than the Axis counterpart without requiring something like being confined to a few doctrines is tiring, and even people like you, who stress that they aren't Axis warriors, defend BS design so vehemently it is killing any mood I have to actually discuss. And then I get accused of flipping on anyone who disagrees with me, yet nobody wants to understand that it is NOT okay, for the billionth and tenth time, to give both the better tank related gimmicks and the raw stats to one side and give the other horrible units with negligible cost advantage. T-34/76 never outnumbers Panzer IV, and Panther is more than cost effective against it.