“While the Sherman tank couldn’t hold a candle to the German tanks”
Could not hold a candle too the very best of German tanks... which they had very few of. The tanks that the Germans actually had decent numbers of the Sherman was very competitive with. Combine that with APCR ammo and the stabilized gun and the Sherman was to be feared. Even by Tigers. The Sherman could flank it while firing on the move with its stabilized gun. If there were several of them a Tiger was in deep trouble. It had better hope the infantry anti tank guns kept it from getting flanked 8 ways to sunday.
Now if we had to go up against the late war Soviet tanks, in great numbers, with M4s... well that would have been bad. I think teaching them the right way to mass produce stuff was a big mistake. The lessons they learned with Lend Lease extended the Cold war at least 20 years.
Also worth noting is that at the time of the M4’s introduction to the Eighth Army in North Africa, it was a very competitive platform.
Some applique armor and a 17 Pounder (as in the Firefly) and you have a pretty decent tank. The Israelis ran their M-51s almost into the Eighties, IIRC.