For the new players reading this, Gaijin has recently admitted that they balance free vehicles around a negative SL income for average players. That means they WANT you to lose money by playing, so you'll be forced to buy a top tier premium vehicle.
This isn't just greedy, it also destroys the matchmaker and the balance of the game. Since you only profit using premium vehicles they often end up being spammed. In battlerating 10.0, more than half the players on each team are in premium tanks. This results in rampant "one death leaving". These players only spawn their premium tank and leave when it's destroyed, leaving their team in a bad position. Sometimes the premium is their only tank for the tier, othertimes it's because "free" tanks aren't worth the high cost to repair.
Gaijin and their purposefully frustrating economy is ultimately to blame for this. There's so many other issues and scandals I could bring up, like how you can't repair or extinguish flames on your new tank before unlocking "parts" and "FPE". Gaijin wants you to pay gold to skip the grind for these essential tools.
ln it's current state, I wouldn't recommend this game to anybody. That might seem hypocritical considering my hours spent in this game, but believe me. It's new players who suffer the most. Gaijin doesn't care about me, you, or the playerbase. Don't make the same mistake as me. Find another game that values your input, and respects your time.