You are right with the package. Also those mgs work somehow. Yet, overall at the price of a comet you get a very 'strange' vehicle. Close range kind of anty inf, and longer range but not long range some kind of AT. Just odd. Also rather unintuitive, which may baffle new players.
The health pool in this case just makes repairs longer, and requires an engineer to accompany it all the time. I think a better ai gun and less health would make it just more 'normal'.
The comet and panther are sort of on the same page. Both are kinda more for beating the shit out of regular mediums but not being helpless against infantry like TDs are. They are meant to duke it out with enemy medium tanks. Even the okw p4 is meat to the comet and the panther, lacking the utility of the comet is superior to the comet.
The lower AI of these tanks is to prevent them from entirely making their respective mediums obsolete and is necessary for balance. We've seen both of these hybrid premediums make their standard mediums see no field and that's not a good balance. They are slightly niche but still valuable assets.
Pios just got a buff to their repair speed making it easier than ever before in the history of coh to get your panther back on the field. And it's an intended feature for taking damage but not being destroyed to result in down time for your tanks...