It is an interesting debate really, because historically the Germans broke massive ground with their tanks which provided a perfect mix of mobility and protection. While the Soviets did have a sloped turret design with their tanks that provided protection benefits, they were often very vulnerable. (Lack of radios for communication for the T-34/76) and many weaknesses around the tracks/wheels, and their small-ish- caliber guns)
The Panther was extremely fast, powerful, and well armored for its time, it is lauded as the "First Modern MBT".
If anything, it's the T-34 that broke the most ground. Look at what the Germans had in 1941, Panzer IIs and III with the low calibre guns you mentioned the Soviets having (The T-34 always had a 76mm gun, which is a pretty significantly sized weapon considering that everyone else was still using 40-50mm guns... (or less in the case of many German tanks, looking at early models of the panzer III and the Panzer 38t. So the idea that Soviets had smaller calibre guns is nonsense, the largest gun on a German tank was on the StuG A and PIV D-E varients, with a 75mm gun whose muzzle velocity was thoroughly pitiful...
All I can say is that if anything the Soviets were ahead with their tanks (definitely with the T-34) and the Germans had to do the catching up in 1941-2, it was thanks to the woeful state of the rest of the Red Army that they were able to advance...
The Germans if anything probably went backwards with their tank designs toward the end of the war, with the Panther probably being their high water mark. The reason I say this is that look at what the Germans were developing: the Tiger, which whilst it has this awesome reputation, is constantly breaking down and is extremely complex, the Panther, which is also expensive, complex and breaking down (the French when they had panthers in their army after the war considered using them in operations but deemed them too unreliable...) then you have the Tiger II (underpowered, slow, complex), and then the rest of the Tank destroyers they made which are either unsuited for anti-infantry operations and/or are just overkill, probably only the Jagdpanther was any good...
Even the Panzer IV was backward in a whole pile of areas (a factor which the game entirely fails to show...) As for the Soviets being weak in the tracks, at least they were wide enough for them not to sink into the mud like the P4...
If you look at today's militarys, you'll notice a distinct lack of Heavy Tanks, Heavy Tank Destroyers or the like. There will however be a large amount of vehicles with a curious resemblance to the T-34 in their role...
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