Can someone help me understand the AMX M4 49 (Liberte)? This cupola is killing me.

Seriously, I'm coming into this tank after the SuperPershing thinking it would be a slight upgrade all around. It feels far from that for now.

I'll try to keep my complains short, since I'd actually like to get good at the tank. Nonetheless:

• Paper armour everywhere but at the front = can't take a hit from arty. Yet it's a heavy tank, so it gets focused by arty a lot;

• The gun handling is very bad. People have said this before me, but it's possibly one of the most dirty cases of Wargaming selling good stats on paper and then gutting them with hidden values;

• Mediocre mobility. It's workable, but not quite enough for a tank that needs to "Point Front Towards Enemies At All Times". Easily flankable by side hugging mediums.

• Finally, the cupola. God damn, this really hurts this tank. People complain about lack of frontal weakspots, but this is too much. In fact, it's a full blown weakness. It's easily penned by tier 6s, it's easily penned by some high calibre HE. The salt in the wounds is having it almost dead center on the turret, making turret-wiggling practically useless.

I wasn't around WoT at the time, but I'm having a seriously hard time understanding how this tank was ever help up at the same height as the Patriot and Defender. The way I see it, the Patriot is still a very solid tank, while the Defender is as overpowered as ever.

So venting aside, for those who play the Liberte, how do you do it? Can you perform reliably well in it?