I effectively had the same convo with a friend back in high school and pointed out the Gundam’s biggest canonical battlefield tech breakthrough was its armor, which let it potentially take anything to the face (until beam weapons see widespread use in the original). Then I compared that a real-life analog, the Abrams, which can hide behind hills and things despite being a taller tank than its counterparts. The Gundam— or anything else it’s fighting — can’t hide.

He still thought the army should use mechs after that…