>>96906862
The main upside of UC Gundam's armour is that it's apparently so laser-resistant that it became impractical to use them as weapons, so they switched to particle accelerators. The downside is that this armour struggles vs anything else.

MS themselves absolutely fuck in space and they have superior alternative propulsion options under gravity, such as hover&flight systems. Their exotic CC options are also rather brutal.

The standard UC ships of the line are dropship sizes and don't seem to have anything beyond structural rigidity and protections vs micro-debris. Things improve for later gens with Minovsky and beam shielding.

For BT, in a direct confrontation, the main struggle would be that lasers and guided missiles are very much not useful. For an MS, the problem would be that they're up vs walking machines that roll with about as many guns the guns as a Guntank, can tank multiple hits from a beam rifle and that don't actually mind closing the distance.