It was an event vehicle. You could either complete the absolutely miserable events back then or whip out an unabvisable amount of money on the marketplace later. If you didnt get it back then apart from crates -the way i got it- or the marketplace theres no way of obtaining it afterwards. So at least most of the people owning it now are long time players. Not necessarily only the best players but at least the kind of players that were willing to put in an ungodly amount of hours when the event was happening. And rest assured: Compared to those crafting events back then the events today are a walk in the park with an icecream in one hand, your girlfriend/boyfriend holding your other in perfect weather and everyone you meet offering you more free icecream.
Similar to the t34-85 which was only available -and returns- for special events and a limited amount of time.
ok if that doesnt at least have some effect for rare and event vehicles (not the standard premium ones which can be bought by anyone, at any time), pls explain the massive performance gap of the almost identical tech tree t34-85s and the t34-85e which almost no one owns?