They are. You don´t need to attack for the first 5-7 minutes with your gren, just stay in cover and hold your fuel until you feel comfortable to start to push back.
That´s how you lose the game as Ostheer. You can´t run in later into a wall of Maxims, Zis + Flak ht + mines. German late game has been nerfed.
Just stop it with the "Axis just need to wait". That´s not true any longer - definitely not when facing Soviets. USF is a different case. But that´s a problem with the army design, not of the Axis factions.