This narrative of yours that the JP4 is for countering mediums is ridiculous and no one is asking for it to be the case.
So how do you know no one is asking for it? Did you hold a poll under all OKW players? I don't have any evidence proving otherwise, nor do I claim the opposite, but the distinct lack of balance threads being raised about it in the last 1-2 years (a grand total of one bigger one and another very small one on these forums) seems to indicate that most people are content with the way it has functioned for years now.
The JP4 misses most of its shots at range trying to track mediums and Jacksons/Fireflies on the move, due to it having to rotate to keep up I imagine triggering the 50% moving accuracy modifier. What do you suppose happens to a turret-less tank when turreted tanks swarm it? The P4 is a much less risky counter.
Accuracy at max range is fine, it has -15/15 traverse to track targets without moving, which is the same as the SU-85. Only close to medium range it can have trouble tracking with the gun traverse alone. It has high base accuracy stats and high veterancy accuracy bonuses. It counters mediums because it utterly out-DPMs them, because of a very fast reload, low target size and 230 frontal armor. Flanks can be prevented by using other units to provide sight, threaten snares and lay mines. As long as you prevent it from getting flanked, it eats up mediums with ease. The Panzer IV Ausf.J struggles with anything that has more than 160 armor, and even against the Sherman and the Cromwell it's mostly a coin toss which one wins.
I'm not sure why you think a JP4 excels at countering other TDs either, it's nowhere close to a hard counter, it can only trade damage.
Because it out-DPMs every Allied TD at vet 0 because of faster reload and smaller target size, along with having a tiny chance to bounce. With veterancy it gets camouflage, 800 hitpoints and even faster ROF, at which point it out-DPMs Allied TDs with ease and effectively hardcounters them.
Vet 0 TTK at max range, from the first shot:
(accuracy not included, as it's proven to be too random to quantify. Even though the Jagdpanzer IV has a
significant accuracy advantage over the Firefly and the Jackson, as its target size at 17 is much lower than the other two's 23 and 24 respectively. Though the Firefly and Jackson have a 0.05 and a 0.25 moving accuracy advantage in return.)
- SU-85 vs JP IV: 22,6s (16,95s if we ignore the small bounce chance)
- Firefly vs JP IV: 24,75s (24,75s if we ignore the small bounce chance) (ignoring Tulips)
- Jackson vs JP4: 26,2s (19,65s if we ignore the small bounce chance)
- JP4 vs SU-85: 15s
- JP4 vs Firefly: 15s
- JP4 vs Jackson: 15s
Vet 3 (4) TTK at max range, from the first shot:
- SU-85 vs JP4: 18,28s
- Firefly vs JP4: 18,75s (ignoring Tulips)
- Jackson vs JP4: 20,22s
(Don't know the exact values here because Cruzz' stats don't show vet 4 reload, and I don't know how to calculate it exactly, so these are estimations. But the point is clear.)
- JP4 vs SU-85: ~11,5s-13s
- JP4 vs Firefly: ~11,5s-13s
- JP4 vs Jackson: ~11,5s-13s
And no, it doesn't just struggle with an IS2, it also fails to do much of anything to an ISU even with HEAT rounds. Meanwhile allied TDs can reliable pen Elephant/JT frontally.
That seems like a highly subjective statement, which is not supported by the statistics:
- Jagdpanzer IV has a 50% chance to penetrate the ISU-152 at max range;
- Jagdpanzer IV with HEAT shells has a 65% chance to penetrate the ISU-152 at max range.
Allied TDs at max range have a
- 52,5-55% chance to penetrate the Elefant at vet 0. And 52,5-71,5% chance at vet 3;
- 47-48% chance to penetrate the Jagdtiger at vet 0. And 47-64% chance at vet 3.
TLDR: the Jagdpanzer IV is a highly underrated unit, it excels at its intended roles of killing everything that isn't a heavy. Even against most heavies it's decent, as its high DPM makes up a lot for the lack of penetration. It's also an excellent unit to support a Tiger I or Tiger II and the combination is very powerful. The Panther is meant to be OKW's (Axis') heavies counter, and the Panther is good against everything that isn't an IS-2. I don't see a reason to give the Jagdpanzer IV higher penetration and slower reload, as it would strip OKW of an effective mediums/TDs counter, blur the role divide with the Panther, would unnecessarily further homogenize the game and would introduce an already unhealthy profile to yet another unit.