Also on raping the ball, the bat seems to be very hard pressed. Is this something with GMs? I also had a Indian made GM Maxi 909 which felt very hard pressed.
GM used to be quite hard pressed 90%+ of the time and needed lots of knocking and playing in. In fact there have been cases when it seems to have taken many months for a GM to start pinging. There are 3 bits of good news though!
First is that GM always sets very decent standards of craftmanship and quality.
Second is that most of the pressing of GM bats these days are responsive sooner - yours sounds as though it may take a while to play in?
But lastly, when the GM is played in and starts to respond, they tend to be guns!
I have known several from my experience and GMs that belong to teammates which felt hard at first, but once they start to ping.....YES!
I would recommend giving it time and stick with it! It may take a bit of knocking and playing in, but once it starts to respond, you'll be very pleased you stuck with it!!