I toyed around with it in playtests. Although unlikely, the risk of reinforcing France with 3 UK fighters and 1 tactical bomber remains. It may be enough to force a G2 taking if they are positioned for it. Remember, if the 3 fighters and tactical bomber keep France, expect 5 more French Units on round 2.
Italy has 7 units I believe that can hit France. Assume Germany gets France down to 3 units and then its a 7 on 7 unit fight. For Germany to get lower than 3 units in France, you would need some precision dice rolling and risk taking France anyway.
The benefits are either more land and air units, or a big Italian navy round 2. I avoid the navy option as I can’t see building enough ships to stop the U.S. fleet with its production advantage.
The biggest drawback I found was not being able to use the extra major factory for Germany, W.Germany fills up fast with later round buys if you are going defensive…without France or another factory site, you are capped at 13 piece builds for Germany. Italy already has a 13 piece cap, giving them 23 pieces production capacity does not line up with their income. (They are not likely to have 42 or more IPCs a round for that 14th unit or more build.)