Good players don't become HP whores is just fine, but there's a difference. Once you've maxed mana and gotten all your spells you will be picking up Health.
I played LM today against Mut / Warrior / Archer. Unfortunately both my team mates died from them. One of them was a Spec Ops picking up HP upgrades. Now, I have no idea how this Spec Ops with over 2k health died against a Mut using L2. That's amazing to me. The problem here isn't that he picked up HP. It's that he picked up HP and he still died. Then again, I'm fighting against a Warrior, a Mut and an Archer and I've got no HP ups and I only managed to die one time. That's after I killed the Archer twice on his last two lives and the Mut once, ran completely out of mana and was cornered finally by the Warrior. None of these guys we're bad players either.
This Spec Ops going HP, had one life left, and decided it was better for him to risk it early on trying to kill a Mut. I wonder now if he went damage that he might have been able to kill him? I don't really know. But, the fact of the matter is that he didn't. He couldn't do it with 2k health because he was standing in the front of mid base when we captured it exping and the Mut could just run back and forth and heal constantly while exping in front of him. Eventually killing the Spec Ops.
If you decide it's not important to heal every 10 seconds when you're being worn down by an opponent who's faster and more dangerous than you are, then you're not playing well. Spec Ops with +4 damage might seem a lot more threatening by that logic. But, the fact of the matter is it's not nearly as threatening as being able to bring someone from 2k health to 0 on 1st night. Spec Ops can't do that. From one game to another if he's going spam DMG or HP on round one, whether I'm fighting against him with LM, or Med, or he's on my team, he's going to lose.
I can kill an LM with a Med by running into his base behind him if the entire map is simmed, 'and' I own all three bases, 'and' he has no HP ups, 'and' an Assault is constantly draining his mana. 'and' I have FH. That does work. A Spec Ops can't do that. Not unless he's throwing every bit of his levels into HP and he's got someone simming for him. That's gotta be around 12 HP ups compared with a Med's FH and at +30 ups on Med from Sims with stim he couldn't have failed where I succeeded. Then again, my Assault had no HP ups and was on his last life, and he decided it was important to chase around the LM who had a nice 200 mana pool with reavers trying to test his luck. Without FH on him I wouldn't have won that game.
Ironically, my other opponent was a Spec Ops who went DMG, thinking he could burn me down. I got all three bases using meds after killing the LM and Spec Ops once each and chasing down the LM a 2nd time. If that Spec Ops had a brain in his skull he wouldn't have gone DMG. My team mate got killed twice because of that. Then again, even if he hadn't died and the Spec Ops had simply ignored him and Exped, he could have just taken over the whole map using L4, crushed our sims, taken our bases, and countered absolutely anything we could throw at him.
This is the difference between a good player and a bad player. "But!", it marks the difference between the advantages of each class. Spec Ops can't go DMG or HP on round one if he expects to survive in the long run. True for almost any class. I know this having gone 2v1 against Assault and Summoner after my team mate died. If I didn't get L4 early I couldn't have bought those four reaver factories and killed their base. The Assault was no genius. He went HP instead of getting his L2/L3 to kill the reavers and destroy the factories. BUT! He didn't die. He kept his base protected from four reaver factories through round 3 and 4.
Ultimately, +4 damage on a Spec Ops is about as threatening as a Med with +5 damage. It's really not as bad as you think it is. Compare this with a Spec Ops who gets L4 and pumps his damage up to 130 and finally destroys an opponents base and then there's a marked difference. What pissed me off about it was that the Spec Ops biggest concern by this point in the game is destroying the base and yet his only real damage is auto attack with stim and +3 damage. That's nothing in the long run. When it takes you 2 full rounds to bring that down, after you've captured the whole map, and spammed reavers, that's depressing.
Well, that's my experience with Spec Ops. In 90% of the games I've played Spec Ops damage has rarely been a threat compared with using his L4. The main issue being that he lacked the burst damage even after going pure DMG. Whether it's 40, 80, 130, or 170 damage, the Spec Ops as he scales and becomes stronger is never going to be able to deal serious damage through auto attack. 8 Reavers and me with 130 damage pounding on an Assault who rushes into them with FH and he didn't die one time.
What amazes me is the group of people who believed he needed to be weaker in damage when his L4 was clearly what was the game winning factor. Being able to take control of the map early on only speeds up the process. A +2 Spec Ops just means you take twice as long to burn a base after you've won than +4 Spec Ops. The damage is actually quite low either way.
As far as Mech Vs. Archer goes, I do agree with your assessment overall. The only issue being that Archer and Mech are pretty even when it comes to their HKho abilities, while the Archer still has a Hydra pack and a base. The Archer may not be able to bring the Mech down, but he still has more presence on the map as long as he uses all his abilities. That may not be a counter, but it's certainly every reason to pick Archer if you're fighting against a Mech. Not including round 1 rush.
None.