New to the game. Premiums are annoying does it get better?

I understand War Thunder is a free game but are the premiums set at a lower BR on purpose to give said players an advantage with the bonus of having 100% extra RP gain?

A quick example I have is the T18E2. Holy shit that thing is annoying, nothing in my tech tree at 3.0 has anything close to its speed, reload, pen and explosive mass. Maybe 1 or 2 of these attributes, but not the whole package.

Do I just get fucked unless I swipe later on as well or is it just that lower BR premiums are more fun* to hook you?