Man I hope so bad that they ban Mobile Assault and Tactical Support doctrine in GCS, just like they did in KotH. Nobody want's to see this ridiculously OP pudding anymore. But have to say that if they ban these, they also should nerf Command Panther and probably Mobile Defense too.
Unfortunately I doubt that these changes would hit early enough.
This is a bit off-topic but removing flamer from penals was the best decision ever. Giving flamer to a durable 6-man squad was such a FailFish - design. We saw that problem with old USF Rifle Company
In 1v1's, I would agree with you about the penal flamer because, with the current map pool, penal flamers make the game unplayable as OKW. I stopped playing OKW in 1v1's because I couldn't find an answer to the large a-moving-penal-blob-of-death. I'd rather see maxim spam all day, every day rather than penals with flamers.
However, in 4v4, not even penals keep the Soviets from being garbage. Conscripts are a joke because of the RA penalties and complete lack of scaling. Maxims are good in larger games only until the first OST mortar or OWK leig hits the field. The standard Soviet mortar is by far the worst mortar in the game, and is mostly just good for smoke. The SU85 seems to have more pathing problems than the JP4.
In short, it feels like they're trying to fix a problem with Soviets by making them unplayable in most game modes. Yes, everyone playing Soviets beat you by spamming either maxims or penals. Everyone who lost to you was either a worse player or tried something other than maxims or penals.
Why not:
Give OKW smoke?
Make the mg34 fire something other than rubber bullets?
Make the OKW incendiary grenades a side upgrade that can be purchased anytime from the start of the game?