Not really, in Russian service it was extremely successful. You have an uninformed opinion. Five of the 10 highest scoring Soviet aces logged the majority of their kills in P-39s. Grigoriy Rechkalov scored 44 victories in Airacobras. Pokryshkin scored 47 of his 59 victories in P-39s, making him the highest scoring P-39 fighter pilot of any nation, and the highest scoring Allied fighter pilot using an American fighter.
The high attrition rates in USAF were due to early war poor tactics, meeting Zeros in maneuvering dogfights that no other fighter on earth could turn with, and in Europe we operated at high altitudes that it could not function at.
Interesting side note: On Guadalcanal land-based F4F Wildcats flew top-cover for the P-39’s on a lot of anti-shipping strikes. The Wildcat HAD a 2-stage mechanical supercharger and so had some capability at altitude that the Airacobra lacked. But the Airacobra had that 37MM cannon in the nose that could tear through an invasion barge like nothing else. So the Navy pilots got to ‘entertain’ the Zeros while the P-39’s got down in the weeds with the enemy infantry.
In Soviet service, the P-39 also benefitted from liquid cooling that better retained heat so as to be able to start easier during the winter.