Are tanks really useless?

this will be long so if you don't like reading just skip

The CON community have shown a real distaste on tanks, particularly due to its mechanism as a meatshield and lack of versatility. They tend to argue that it can be easily countered by strikers, helis, and even MLRS. But it actually serves a unique purpose. Tanks as a main is very bland and hard to use because of its counters, and high cost. But when synergized properly it's very effective.

Tanks shouldn't be used as tanks alone When I say this I'm pointing out to those people who tried mass producing tanks alone and expected it to dominate the whole game. Those people who attack with 5-8 stacks of MBT mixed with Recon and later on get crunched by Helis or Strikers. In real warfare Tanks are accompanied with Motorized infantry or Mechanized infantry this is essential as the main role of tanks is to "tank" not to solo a whole nation. Even in Blitzkrieg people forgot that alongside the Panzers they used a lot of manpower to do clearing operation for extra firepower. Tanks mainly dominate early to mid in the game where People still have low stacks of Strikers, Helis, and MLRS. A good combination of tank march is almost unstoppable if you're not prepared.

How does each tank serves it's purpose? I'll walk you through this one by one

Combat recon vehicle Used early on the game. Are essential for scouting cities or even sketchy provinces before sending your troops. They reveal the exact composition of the units within that area, so right before sending your 8 stack of infantry you would know whether they have any counter for infantries or are there huge stacks of defenses before entering a city so that you won't lose value just because you relied on the ASF radar.

Armored fighting vehicle This is my wildcard among armoured units. This can be used for areas that have rough terrains such as the South American regions or the Central Asian regions where units takes more time to engage or even defend. They can give you a bit of advantage on countries within those regions as you can easily pair them with Artilleries and serve as your front for faster offense.

Amphibious Combat Vehicle Personally, it's my least used armoured vehicle as it only serves a specific purpose which is for coastal pressure. But it doesn't make it useless, since you can use this early game to do surprise coastal attacks especially when your main flank lands on the main city. You can land these on every coast even without pantoon or Naval bases. but yes the cost for it is not worth it IMO. But maybe for those who loves and knows how to do a Normandy type of attack then suits them well. Specially for coastal countries.

Main Battle Tanks Probably the most overrated tank. People love it due to its sheer offensive display but it does lack mobility and is very expensive to produce. But you can use it to push cities especially when they tend to do National Guard defense tactics, MBT can ram through cities much faster if paired with infantries as it's echelon allows it to go upfront and eat all the incoming damage. It's still a double edged sword since it cost too much, but when used for specific targeted attacks then you can definitely use this. Also, if paired with SAMs and Anti-Helis it's nearly unstoppable on the ground to the point that not even average stack of MRLS will stop the offensive push it offers. Consider MBT as an expensive shield with high output damage. Use it with caution don't use your MBT if you know it can get taken down too easily or if you don't have good support.

Tank Destroyers Resource wise it's probably the most worth it especially on early to mid game pushes. It's ideally paired with Mechanized infantry since it's echelon is on the rear side. It provides a good amount of damage especially against MBT mains or AFV mains. Don't use it alone as it can be easily get overwhelmed by national guards or infantries. The use for this unit is it serves as your firepower which cost lesser than an MBT but offers almost the same damage as an MBT but for armored units. You can also pair this with attack helicopters to reduce the infantry threats.

Finally Tanks are not super useless, they're just misunderstood. They're not the type of units which you can stack 10x and expect to win it all by then, because pro players know how to counter them easily. But paired with good units and used properly on their actual uses then you'd get insane values in return. Just be sure to manage your resources first before diving into tanks as it really needs a lot of resources for research and production.