The Lvkv9040C has this shell
The 2s38 has this shell
You are fooling yourself if you are going to call that ‘slightly better’
It also has APHE, which isn’t detrimental because you simply swap at will.
The 2S38 also has this shell
Which has a 6m trigger radius, as opposed to the Lvkv9040C’s
Which also does far less damage, and anyone who has ever used the Lvkv9040C will tell you that the proxy fuze is not very good at actually killing aircraft, most times you will only get a ‘hit’ or very minor damage.
The Lvkv9040C does not have an unmanned turret, and can easily be destroyed/ammoracked through the turret. It does not have a tiny Gaijin male sized breech, unlike the 2S38, which makes it easy to breech. The Lvkv9040C, due to the massive radar on the back, is extremely easy to kill with HE, something Russians have in spades.
The 2S38 has OBSCENELY good gun handling, STOCK it is 38 degrees, which will only get better, likely upwards of 60 degrees, and it is 22 degrees vertical. (I’m not pathetic enough to buy the 2S38 so I don’t know for certain, this is a guesstimate). The Lvkv is literally half as good as the 2s38 in gun handling.
The 2S38 has gen 3 commander and gunner thermals, the LvKv9040c has gen 2 thermals and NO commander sight.
While the Lvkv 9040c has double the reverse, it takes much longer to reach the same speed as the 2s38. The 2s38 is much more maneuverable, much faster forward, much more responsive. So no, the Lvkv9040C is not more mobile.
The radar is actually not super helpful. It can occasionally find targets, but the angle is fairly low facing, and the lock on is IRST, which the 2S38 appears to have far better functionality with, as I struggle to lock on to many things with the 9040C.
While the 9040C may have double the fire rate, it also runs through its ready rack (24 shots) in seconds, while outputting far less firepower than the 2S38. It then takes forever to rearm said ready rack. It takes 5.5 seconds of sustained fire to completely empty the Lvkv9040C’s ready rack, whereas it takes twice as long, over 10 seconds, to empty the 2S38’s ready rack of 21.
The 2S38 can also kill pretty much any tank in the entire game frontally, if you know your weakspots.
The HSTV-L is also 11.3, does not have an unmanned turret, does not have IRST, does not have proxy fuze, and does not have APHE. The shell of the HSTV-L is also only marginally better than the 2S38’s APFSDS, and you have to aim for the same weakspots.
A better comparison would be the Otomatic, which sits at 11.3 as well, and is worse in every single way to the 2S38, besides slightly better shells (though the APFSDS is limited to 12 shots, and is artificially inaccurate) and a mediocre radar (the lock on function is wobbly and also very inaccurate, unlike IRST which is steady.)
So frankly I just think you are a purchaser of the 2S38 (Gross) and are attempting to defend it with all of your might. It is severely, hilariously, and obnoxiously undertiered.