The Biggest Flaw in 40k?

I was discussing with a friend last club about how the player who goes first more often than not will win. Apparently this is why he stopped playing 40k and moved into other wargame systems. I decided to test this theory and so at the end went around to each table with 40k players and asked who had gone first and who had won.

5 of the 7 games had been won by the player who had got the first turn. In the two games where the player went second and won, one of them was running 3 Vendetta's and the other was an experienced Tau player with two Aegis Defence Lines against an inexperienced Space marine player.

I know more data would obviously need to be collected in order to prove that going first provides a significant advantage but it does show something of a problem with the game system that has been inherent for several editions. From personal experience I can say that if I go first I am more likely to win as I can bring my big guns to bear first and remove the biggest enemy threats. Looking at battle reports on the internet I can say the same thing, whoever goes first often wins. The night fighting rules have probably been more widely introduced in this edition to attempt to mitigate this problem somewhat but it does not help enough and actually gives an advantage to some armies. Also, in 6th edition an entire force cannot normally be put into reserves meaning that most of an army will still be vulnerable in the first turn, if they are going second.

A better system would, perhaps, be where there is more ability to react to threats or a better chance to seize the initiative. This would make both players think more about how they set up their forces rather than one hiding and the other preparing to blow them into oblivion on turn one. Hiding doesn't always work though, as it's very hard to hide from barrage and it all depends on how much terrain is being used.