If anything, theoretically CoH2 ought to be the apm/keyboard spamming, caveman on speed, micro focused game because there is so little in terms of macro. The only real way to increase your rate of scarce resources besides caches is to fight and micro better, which leads to capping and engagement efficiency advantages.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was the case for games like SC2, AOE2, and Supreme Commander (I've only dabbled in Supcom and AOE2) that more stuff > less stuff generally speaking until the high level by which everyone already has the prerequisite macro and micro becomes the difference maker. I think on balance there has to be less overall gamestate factors to keep track of in coh2, but COH2's focuses on unit control and positioning to a much larger degree than many other traditional rts games in the genre.
You are correct about CoH2. It's exactly like that. But even when focused on micro, the skill ceiling is low to perform well cause a fewer amount of correct decisions trump plenty of avg ones. While blobbing/spamming can be punished, it can be effective till really high level of play with a low mechanic requirement. You can play META or one style only without altering any factor on ANY MAP and still succeed despite there been better alternatives.
I will talk only about high level of play, cause at lower than than, anything is viable.
Yes, if you can out-macro from 5 mins into the game, you can roflstomp anyone. At high and equal skill level that doesn't cut it and this is probably the pre conceptions most people get out of those games.
SC2: imagine "thinking" that position doesn't matter. GL defending because u didn't position correctly a Zealot to block any ling ran towards your natural. Or what is mech siege tank positioning. U didnt had Archons in the front protecting from baneling bust, goodbye army.
One aspect that doesn't play as much in CoH2 compared to SC2 is scouting, mindgames and build order/tech. CoH has a more natural flow on the combat aspect (slower, back n forth) compared to SC2 which can be more explosive.
AoE2: i'm sure most people impression comes from casual "no rush" 200 army fighting head on. Early mid game most of the time there's lots of micro (small) aggression and fights of just a couple of units while trying to boom as much as possible behind it.
While there's less room for combat micro (outside of kitting, splitting and focusing) if you don't make intelligent use of positioning and terrain (elevation) you will get screwed pretty much.
On a colourful note, while here on CoH it's rare and most people consider cheese to surround unit with sandbag/tank trap, fast walling villagers to protect them from harrasing units is common on high level games.