Arent you the first one to point out historical reasoning is bullocks?
Hence the first line of my post wasn't the only line
Btw does the m4 sherman, t34/85 and Cromwell really have so much less of armor and Pen then ost p4 and okw p4? I dont know the stats but they all seem pretty even when it comes down to Pen and armor.
That really depends, out of the gate they are pretty much similar, not sure why you'd mention 34/85 instead of 34/76 if we want to talk stock tanks, but doctrinal 34/85 still have only 0.5 moving acc.
OKW P4 is really no contest here, allied stock meds have nothing on its 234 armor, Ost P4 needs vet2 for that, so at vet 0-1 its pretty much equal to crom and M4 with slight advantage in the armor vs pen(outcome RNG dependent with ost P4 having slightly better odds), but at vet2 its just one sided steamroll again.
So, OKW P4 is just plain superior and ost one needs vet2 to reach that state.
Similar relations of Panthers vs Comet or Pershing with Panthers having a clear edge, although vetted Pershing fares vs vetted Panther much better then vetted Comet for the RoF vet alone.