The vast majority doesn't play MP:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ary-and-free-dlc.1027532/page-5#post-22926462
Going off those numbers I would recon that around 40% of players play MP at all, and regardless the amount of games played in MP is far more important to your point than the number of players who have tried it. Similarly, even on forums and the subreddit - where MP players are almost certainly overrepresented, since they tend to care more about the minutiae of the game and new developments - we are still massively outnumbered by SP players.
And when people talk about MP balance, it's almost in the (semi-) serious/historical game context, which makes up just a tiny fraction of MP games - usually for each hist lobby there's at least 3 equally-full nonhist lobbies and a similar number of players in private/overhaul-modded games.
Maybe there's specific examples of balance changes you could point me to which suggest otherwise, but in general I (and most MP players) very much feel the game is catered to an SP audience.
Those were done so people play them in general. It has very little to do with MP.
Many types of equipment in this game are abstracted into smaller numbers - especially planes and ships (well, sort of - starting ships aren't, ship production is) - but land equipment is too. Artillery is the exception to this, sort of.
Again, I fail to see what this has to do with MP, given that most players hate those focuses, most light conversion mods take them out, and no good player ever takes them
Not sure which you're referring to - the purge? That also has nothing to do with MP...
Those are for a country which is banned in every serious MP game.
I get that this forum loves to hate on "metagaming MP players," but seriously?