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An average assault player working with a squad can and does frequently clear 20 kills, 30 perhaps as an average for some of the moderately better players, but a solo assault is not going to be averaging 30 kills in an normal game. It takes a very skilled assault to pull off 30+ kill games playing solo as well.

An average skill level solo assault is going to be bouncing widely between anywhere from 5-20 on average depending largely on who's on the other team, what gear the opposing team is running, gear the player is willing to risk running and the content of their own team (officer squads are a huge drain on kills for everyone else in the match, just as an example) which are numbers I also see average solo tankers frequently pulling.

I play either solo or as a duo with my girlfriend exclusively these days, I never run in a full squad. I've been playing Dust since Replication and she's been playing since open beta and we both run both assault classes and AV and have done so for years now. A good match for us is when we top 20 kills individually, but typically we end up only averaging between 10 and 20 kills per game with bad games dipping into the single digits and really good games veering near the 30 mark. It's completely subjective for a solo player, and unless a tanker is good at working as a proper support for a squad (extrordinarily rare to see) they are basically a solo player whether they are in a squad or not (this being the reason for the emphasis on the solo assault experience).

As for a solo AV player being able to scare off a tank - Yes, if they can get behind them and get enough alpha damage on them with AV grenades and whatever AV weapon they have on hand through their hardners (because a tank isn't going to sit there with it's hardners down). Then, if they can manage that while dodging enemy fire, that tank will rocket off into the distance nearly as fast as a top speed LAV only to return to the same spot 20 seconds later fully repped and aware that someone's pulled AV so they should probably farm kills in 3rd person for a while to keep an eye on their week spot.

There is a very big balancing issue right now with making fits that are viable for tanks that aren't just triple hardened fortresses, I understand the issues there and don't deny that there is a big issue with that, however that doesn't excuse the abusability of the triple hardened tank. At MLT and basic levels it's not so bad, but once someone has fully specced into vehicle skills it can take a squad fully focused on AV just to scare off certain proto triple hardened tanks who know good routes and how to properly use cover.

Now all of that said, a tanker working with a squad won't necessarily net more kills like an assault or heavy would in a squad. The tank has a very difficult obstical to overcome if it is ever to truly feel at home in Dust, and that is utility. It doesn't have enough seats to carry a squad, it's useless when stuck outside apart from parking on a hill and trying to fire into the doorways/windows, it requires modules to manage dispersion on it's main anti infantry turret, etc, etc, etc. The presence of a tank will keep people indoors, but forcing people into hiding in tight groups is counter productive as it forces your team to have to breach a room already fortified by a blob of enemies already forted up with hives and uplinks in most cases. This is not a role. The tank lacks a proper role. I personally preffered it much more back when I could 1v1 a tank and it was completely up in the air who would win because their rounds were deadly accurate and I had to duck in and out and between different available cover just to try and shoot at them. At least then they had a role, and that was being a deadly machine that could die relatively easily. People didn't all run indoors to avoid the tanks because they had faith that someone would be able to scare it away soon, whereas now no one expects anyone to do anything about them so they all GTFO of the way of the tank to try to save their own gear. Back then 4-6 shots and a tank would go down from my swarms, and 1-3 shots from their blaster and I was dead. Tanks weren't perfect, but they had options and they had an at least workable purpose.

Sorry if my response seems grouchy or rattled, unable to sleep and my brain is hating me for trying to post through the haze of exhaustion.

Sure, suppression can be a role that tanks, and commandos do, but commandos can be one shotted by snipers for staying in one area, while tanks can take several clips from weapons specifically designed to "kill" them.