Big step backward from the Browning, from what I’ve read.
Concur. The M37, which would feed from either side [like the big M2 .50 caliber] was the final version in US service, and it was mounted on many of the M41 and M48 tanks we gave to the South Vietnamese. Even the old M1919A5, which the Germans and Belgians still had on their former US M47 and M48 tanks in the mid-1960s were reliable, if a bit slow on the barrel change...but quicker with practice. You just had to keep your middle finger a bit low after you tripped the accelerator, or your finger would be mashed by the bolt closing home and your fingernail would not grow back, as mine has not after some fifty years.
But the Israelis reworked their .30 Brownings to 7,62 NATO [it takes a bit more than just a barrel change, but not much more] and the final version, the South African MG4, was modified sop as to work from an open bolt rather than a closed one, avoiding overheated guns, burned-out barrels and, oh yeah, mashed fingers. The US Navy did some similar work, and their version even used the M13 linked ammo as used in the M60 and M73/M219.
And those recoil-operated Brownings are a whole lot easier to clean than the M60 or M240 *gas pigs.*