I agree that the unlocks system is strange and needs more flexiblity
Actually, I'm not a noob, more of a seasoned veteran really. I whine about Mkb because I decided to use it for once and shot to the top of the leaderboard with almost no prior experience using it. After a few hours with far higher score than anyone else, I started to feel like that guy who grinds his XP in a tank by camping outside a spawn with AI MG; I felt like an anti-social points-whore.
I don't whine because it kills me, although I don't like that. I whine because I dominated the battle with it on a crowded server, without much experience in its use. It was way too easy.
Also alot of the ping issue has to do with the game being too demanding for aging servers. I don't play on those servers, I don't have almost any ping issues.
Tanks on CA maps are suffering from the lack of decent AI, indeed, but if you play Gumrak, very little is broken, and it's a ton of fun if you know what you're doing.