You really are advanced stupid here.... you deny increased micro tax despite acknowledging it and underlining the reason why its there.... all this while claiming its some kind of wipe machine, despite again, underlining yourself why its not anymore....
Auto attack range was reduced by a lot.
You need to barrage for any kind of accurate and frequent barrage.
If auto attack alone is tearing you apart, I would advise you to stop blobbing all your units and leaving them AFK for 2 minutes within 90 range of pit.
Just because you can't use it, doesn't mean its bad.
There is nothing wrong with a single unit there, if anything, OKWs much earlier access to panthers is a problem.
T4 accessibility was also greatly increased to the point where its not an argument at all.
What I didn't mention in the OP but find very annoying about the JT is that it can't even reliably kill two Allied TDs from the front. A pair of vet 1 Jacksons always beat it even if you just let them sit AFK in front of the JT. With the SU85 it is more RNG because they don't have 300+ penetration but still often not in favour of the JT.
Halftruck is a remnant of the old tech system, where you would get the doctrine for it and the tank when you went T4 for TDs and katy instead of T3 for lights and T34.
I do agree its out of place, despite being a fan of the HT itself.