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For MW FF but not shooting, the answer is simple: The weapon is NOT accurate at long range. Sure, it still packs one hell of a punch, but when your 'hell of a punch' is unlikely to catch more then maybe one guy most of the time, it's not a very functional AP or AT weapon at longer ranges. Now, in the case of the Demolisher it's got a pretty good AP and AT value, so it'll catch guys fairly often. I think this accurately represents the big AoE effect of the cannon, you're not hitting the squads dead-on, you're hitting the area NEAR the squads and the blast from it has a chance to wipe them out. Like firing shells out of a battleship into inland targets, even using shells which leave craters 30 feet across you'll rarely get a direct hit, but the effect of the shells is still similar: It breaks up enemy units to make them non-functional and seriously hampers their battlefield effectiveness. Heavy armor, however, is likely to resist the explosive force of the shells unless they hit pretty much dead on, hence armor saves.
In an assault, this is less of an issue. With short ranges to targets it's far easier to point your weapon straight at them and much less likely to miss, and with a weapon that powerful anything it hits should be pretty well hosed most of the time. Turns a squad INTO that 30 foot wide crater, essentially.
From a game standpoint this makes them good backup to assault marines, as the assault marines can handle the close-combat and the vindicators can handle the range. Or with basic Tacticals or Devastators to back up their significant FF attacks. At 25cm movement it's not a bad deal for either of those formations, either, as it's only a modest decrease in speed. And it makes Land Raiders a far more assault-oriented unit rather then a shooting unit. While at range they can still be used to place blast-markers and setup for assaults (For instance a unit of Assault Marines doubling forwards to shoot at something as the last action of a turn, then assaulting as the first of the next turn). The fact that they add 4 BM to the break-point of a unit doesn't hurt either.
There, some justification from a real-world and in-game standpoint towards MW in a firefight but not at range.
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