The Kodiak is one of the mechs where the tabletop stats have been heavily influenced by the video game appearances. The jump jet version, as noted in the article, was inspired by MW2, and all of the missile-heavy variants were influenced by MW4.
The Kodiak was introduced to MW4 in an expansion pack that also added the Arctic Wolf, Cauldron Born and Masakari. There was a companion Inner Sphere pack that added the Dragon, Hunchback, Zeus and Highlander. This was back in the day when expansion packs were distributed on physical media. A big patch dropped with the game that would allow everyone to play together, and if you whipped out one of your fancy new pack mechs everyone could play with you, but only you could use it. I distinctly remember thinking this meant that the patch basically had to have the new mechs in it; since you could see the models whilst playing against them, and that this meant that the packs could just as easily have been distributed digitally. And of course, that's exactly what happened in the end, with games sprouting loot boxes and all sorts of other optional ways to send the developers more money.
But I digress.
The "theme" of the IS pack was ballistic weapons. All four IS mechs in the pack were very ballistic heavy, which made it the better pack of the two because missile weapons basically sucked in MW4. I'm not sure why the devs thought that all the mechs in a given pack needed to have a consistent "theme," but the clan pack was the same way, only all of the clan mechs in the pack were super missile heavy. For the Arctic Wolf this obviously made sense. For the Cauldron Born... I could sort of see it, I guess it has missile racks on the shoulders. For the Kodiak and Masakari it was just bizarre. The clan pack also added the "roaring" jump jet noise for the Kodiak. It was a nice touch in a product that was otherwise a quick and shameless cash-in; the Kodiak on release had serious hitbox issues that would actually allow fire to pass through the right torso!
So, because of video game influence the Kodiak has gained a lot of variants that jump and that are missile boats. I don't think that's the right direction for a mech like this. What made the original Kodiak scary is that it had enough firepower that it stood good odds of obliterating medium and some heavy mechs in a single volley. At the very least, it stood good chance of removing limbs and punching through to crit weapons. A mech that survived the initial attack from a Kodiak was likely to be down some firepower, or maybe missing a leg. A lot of that was because so much of the damage was in concentrated, 20 point, limb-snapping chunks. 2X SLRM-20s is a lot of damage, but it's going to be almost homogenously spread out over the target. It's going to shave off a lot of armor, sure, but it won't kill or maim in a single shot.
I will give the Kodiak II 2 that the idea of a self-repairing assault mech is hilarious, even if ferro-lamellor armor is the more efficient option against most threats (and also a Snow Raven invention, so there would be every reason for the Bears to use it).