First of all which mode are you playing? If 1v1 then you're probably right and you can dismiss what I'm saying, if not then most of what you're saying is complete rubbish I'm sorry
All of them. Mostly teamgames. What you are saying, sounds more like you are either playing a pre-mades or against noobs honestly. All you are talking about, is basically dragging the game into a late mid or late game or basically out-playing your opponent, which competent allied player wont allow you to do or at least he will be snowballing like crazy. We already got this "gitgud and rush this particular green cover on this particular map" approach in balancing CoH2, thank you very much.
Pathfinders are literally the 3-man Scout squad with one extra soldier, the utility package and a rifle-nade. They lose hard vs charging DAK Pgrens and they are also pretty much defenseless vs Grenadiers + Sniper support. Yeah they give you a lot of map control in the first 5min but then they fall apart like wet paper, unless you're fighting vs a clueless opponent who just builds 2 MGs + grens and hopes for the best
By the time US player have 4 paths, you have 1 PG, 1 ST and 250. I fail to see how you will be charging 4 or even 3 paths with your PGs. As for gren sniper, nothing stops US player to either use their own sniper (since going paths with T1 is pointless) or just use vet 1 ability to catch sniper. On top of that, US player will for sure just be sitting somewhere doing nothing, letting Wehr player get grens and sniper out.
What LV are we talking about here? The Flakvierling is on par with the quad flak and zook paras can be easily avoided by a mobile suppression platform if you give it some sight.
If we consider that you are not playing against an idiot, you most likely wont win early engagements before your flak HT. Zooks here are simply to zone you out, not letting you use flak aggressively.
The 76mm sherman is the one single thing that US got going for them that could be called overpowered, but it's very expensive hence arriving at a very late stage of the game and it forces you to go 1 specific support center.
How is it expensive? Not only you are not forced to pick it before your first sherman, if you do, it arrives minute or two later then wehr P4.
DAK Pgrens with CA beat tommies under pretty much all circumstances
Like you will be fighting 1 un-upgraded tommie under CA early game.
While Italian CA is arguably the best DAK doctrine at the moment, saying that the faction is "on life support" without it is complete BS. Pgrens with CA have the best stats across all mainline inf squads (and in 2v2-4v4 it's certainly not hard to park a 250 or flakvierling near your grens), they have a non-doctrinal nuke heavy mortar, a dirt-cheap 90 meters scout vehicle and most importantly: The ridiculously strong Armory upgrades that turn your tanks into the best of the game
No-one cares about CA or how their armor becomes the best one in the game, if competent allied players just let you win early game, because you are at constant disadvantage via units on the field.