In comparison to 20million Russian soldiers, yes it is..
Concentrated into a relatively small portion of the front, 1.4 million men could be a very significant threat as part of an alliance. Spread out, and having to face those 20 million Soviets alone, not so much. The point is that (most of) the minor powers were quite capable of actions against a major country on a limited scale, but that they weren't anywhere near large enough to face the full wrath of a major power alone. The vanilla game tends to overpower them with unrealistic levels of IC, while making them unrealistically technologically backwards (practically no tech difference between Sweden, Hungary, or Czechoslovakia on the one hand, and Tibet, Oman, or Ethiopia on the other), while most of the mods tend to even further cut their already low Leadership and ability to make full use of what limited resources they do have.
Vanilla: most minors able to field unrealistically large armies, with almost no technological distinction between "industrialized" and "undeveloped" minors, all depicted at some intermediate level of mediocrity.
Mods: most minors able to field realistic sized armies often fighting with little more than sticks and stones.
Example: Hungary. Historically, was able to develop a variety of TDs, SPGs, SPAA, and other variants from an initial licensed tank design. Was able to field 100K-120K men with "decent" training and equipment in 1942, who were fairly effective on the Eastern Front. Was then coerced by Germany into sending an additional 250K men in 1943 on short notice, poorly trained, poorly equipped, who where nearly annihilated in a series of engagements near the river Don. The ability to field a SMALL contingent of highly competitive troops was definitely there, but the industrial capacity and economy required to train and build/equip the sheer numbers of men and machinery needed to face a major power head-on just wasn't there.
Vanilla, I can field that full 1943 infantry army in 1940, along with "licensed" German or Italian tanks, aircraft, and other heavy equipment, which they were only able to provide in limited amounts historically, but I can barely research and develop the 1934 vintage radios for the tanks by 1939 without ignoring nearly everything else, much less create the historical range of domestically designed and produced tank variants, TDs, SPGs, ACs, etc. I also can't develop doctrines for the "toys" that I can license-build without completely abandoning details like "officer ratio". IC is absurdly high, Leadership is definitely low.
Mods, I have trouble enough just maintaining respectable infantry techs and doctrines, and a few minimal industrial techs, with virtually nothing left over. The ahistorically high IC is limited to historical levels of output by the lack of industrial techs and other "leverage" that the major countries get in absurd amounts. In essence, there's not much point in playing, because you really can't DO anything but provide a slight speed-bump when it's time for the major countries to overrun you according to schedule.
In the vanilla game, GER gets a lot of "free" manpower by event, and since IC doesn't require manpower to run, you can crank out factories and never have to worry about having enough bodies to run the equipment AND field a huge army. It also has enough Leadership points to do "everything" simultaneously, and dedicate research slots to "researching ahead", rather than doing the "most critical" techs and then having just enough left to dabble in a couple of different fields.
