Hot take: flame tank is better than flame launcher. Having an anti infantry unit that is only weak to one of the trees is better than one that is strong against only one tree.
but they can make them surrender. and routing or surrendering isnt a problem with flame launcher because it just dies not allowing the enemy player to gain advantage of it. its also quite expensive, and for that money why get a flame tank when you can get a multi L tank for a similar cost for better damage against infrantry.
People like comparing it to grunt m due to the lack of radio. I however believe it’s much closer to the regular grunt (both can attack twice). Instead of calling artillery, it can use grenades.