War Thunder does an April Fool's event each year. Early on the events were a little more top to bottom silly (flying horses that shot lasers, a giant snail, WWII robot tanks). In the last few years, the April Fool's events seem to have served as a tech demos for upcoming game features.
In 2016, they had sailing vessels that preceded the beta testing of naval forces, presumably to get some feedback on water physics and naval artillery dynamics.
In 2017, they introduced "Rank IX" (at the time vehicles only went to Rank V) with modern tanks (Leopard 2A5 and T72, I think) and helicopters. Since then, they have introduced Rank VI vehicles which takes the game up to the early 70's (original M1 Abrams and T64). So the "joke" was Rank IX, but the tech demo (modern vehicles) was real.
I think the WT players all assume that "Silent Thunder" the game is a joke, but that submarines in general (quite possibly WWII era subs) could likely be introduced to WT Naval forces at some point. So I do not think that Gaijin thinks that subs are a joke at all.
They are not perfect by any means, but in general, Gaijin is one of the few companies working to make a "realistic" wargame that can appeal to more than just the hardcore. I am not sure it's fair to say they are not making challenging content for their flagship game.
Mike
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