I'm pretty sure that the current military understanding is that going for Kiev rather than Moscow is what prevented the Germans from suffering a humiliating and catastrophic defeat in front of Moscow, and which would have also left the Soviets with vastly more military and industrial capability of their own without the loss at Kiev.
Given that the thread is supposed to be about armies underperforming relative to strength, training, equipment, I'm not really sure if France underperformed. Yes, France as a state underperformed in producing the army of 1870, but given the terrible blemishes which pervaded the French imperial army and the fact that the German system was simply superior at putting a large army in the field quickly with good supplies, intelligence, aggression, artillery, systematically good training, aggressive doctrine, and an effective general staff, the outcome of the war was effectively pre-determined from day one... Although admittedly, the sheer scale of the French loss might have been lessened by different command.