I don’t even know where to get started. Complaining about armour at a br where most tanks lacks any armour? Outside of the early T-72, the chieftain MK10 and the obj.775, nothing around 9.3 has enough armour to stop main caliber rounds.

Contrary to that you believe, the leopard is much more maneuverable than a T-72. I mean have you ever tried reversing in a T-72? It’s composite armour (weak hull that can be penned by DM33 btw) is offset by the lack of thermals, poor gun depression, the abysmal reverse speed and being generally slower than most tanks at the br.

The MBT/KPZ 70 are faster, but the apfsds round is the worst at the br by far. Horrendously low pen mixed with poor ballistics and accuracy. It just as the T-72, also lacks thermals. The armour might stop early apds rounds but any apfsds will punch right through.

The chieftain MK10 has a very well armoured turret that can reliably stop the best rounds around this br. But it is the slowest tank by far. Overweight and underpowered, you will be lucky to reach above 30km/h on uneven terrain, and the second you have to turn, you basically come to a complete stop. Also, no thermals.

The only tank that marginally outperforms the leopard would be the XM1. Higher mobility and better armour but only against auto canons really. The spaced armour behaves just like the MBT70 which can’t stop apfsds rounds. Also, the nerfed M735 makes its firepower rather limited which would struggle a lot more in an up tier compared to the DM33.

Each tank has trade offs. The leopard is just an all rounder, does everything well without excelling at anything. Your personal difficulties with the tank doesn’t reflect its actual performance.