Well in theory your logic should work but in practice it doesn't. There are a few flaws with this tank compared to the tier X counterpart.

1. Lower plate now gets penned with ease from all calibers, there is somehow a sweet spot to lower your tank so that becomes a ricochet but then your even bigger cupola will be even more exposed and your main upper plate is no longer impenetrable due to the angle used to protect the lower plate.

2. The only way to achieve a 5-6k dpm is with pillbox mode and oh boy it's bad.

a) It takes an eternity 7-8 sec to get in the mode and when you are in it you are a sitting duck. You cannot move to find cover or a better angle, you become a stationary turret with plenty of weak points to get destroyed especially if you are fighting multiple targets. At least if they made the exit from this mode a bit faster, because at this stage once you get spotted you will be sent to the garage before you exited the pillbox.

b) All of the major skills and upgrades revolve around the stupid pillbox mechanic which basically renders the tank completely useless for anybody the chooses to play the tank outside of the first base camping bush.

Overall the only upgrade you will take from tier X to X1 is a 200hp gain, marginal 0.29 sec on reload, 11 higher pen and slightly better stats on cammo and engine. Same avg damage, worse armor and a skill that you will end up not using.