i think you guys are jumping a bit to fast one thing, there is one thing the substrate always have to pay a lot more of, that is radioactive and metal both in fact. orbital buildings are lot more pricy in terms of radioactive. second thing is the subs units do take full damage but they also dish a lot of dps from their units.
not to mention most of the income comes from beign aggresive expansionist so the subs have to rob phc of their metal income.
the phc are meant to build their armys up behind turteling defences the sub destructors have to scrap that wall, layer for layer while the phc artimeis is a big crane with a big ball of metal just cruhsing any defences in their path.
you got to use the factions strenght to your best instead of saying a few things are unblalanced and the subs are op, you got to counter them before they make their move and have insurance in case of air dread orbitals and so on, any weaknesses in your infrastructure will give options for the phc and subs alike.
You got to protect and predicte where your opponent will strike as well go on the agrro once their is a lack of defences in a certain area or that the two main armies are in combat, beign inflexible will just reduce your chances of beign victories
also the avatar is pretty easy to counter with tier 2 you just have to have counter mesures before it happens and see what the sub player will see as an ideal target for disruption of eco.
but i also agree on the fact the phc air bomber needs to be buffed it dies off to quickly and has to fly over armys in order to be effective is so make them more durable since hp and turteling is their faction strenght.
the subs on the other hand needs to tech up dps so they can deal damage to phc if they over focuse on hp and shields they will fall behind in terms of long combats. not to mention as a sub player i cant allow myself to inflexible, i have to pick my battles carefully and target undefended or weak spots in your infrastructure, i basicly have to outsmart you. if i clash in an army battle without thinking ahead of what can happen next, i will lose the match.
also change you basic strat, there are many x factors such as map distance, speeding up production, information, nothing stands still in a rts game and dont think everything is gonna play out as you pictured in your head, you got to secure your part of the insurance.
also yes the fury did behave a bit weird, but one thing dont move the fury once the combat begins, once they fire against each other, you are in a combat state, if you move in during that time, you are letting the enemy have a one side combat, your fighters will not fight back as a priority but they will focus on getting to where you clicked.