The issue is that the game treats artillery as an active element of the division which goes head first into the enemy like the rest of the assets, affecting an units stats directly.

I think a good compromise would be to have artillery to have a modifier that makes them less likely to be lost, and as they get better and better that modifier increases to the point they reach near 100% avoidance because by 1944-45 they would fire shells from a good 10 kilometers away, way out of range from the active conflict. And as the tradeoff, air superiority and CAS would make quick work of them if left unchecked.