You’re right. Read Captain(ret.) Belton Cooper’s “Death Traps’’. The Sherman was a joke.
That’s a good book. I have it in paperback and on Kindle.
He wrote the Shermans had radial aircraft engines that operated at lower RPMs than they should, since Shermans couldn’t fly, and the fist-sized spark plugs were always fouling.
Mobility? Thin tracks. Firepower? Low velocity 75mm cannon. Armor. Not so good against the Panther and Tiger.
The Germans were surprised that we didn’t even bother to camouflage them, but we pwned the sky.
The M26 Pershing was a different animal—good sloped armor, mobility and a powerful, self-leveling cannon.
He has photos of a Tiger(?) that was lying in wait on a feeder street, cooking off after a Pershing at speed loosed a shot on the fly and shows a couple of the crewman scampering off.
Belton Cooper’s work has been disproven by later scholars.