Don't try to make IR tank combat "more realistic".

Its like trying to make chess more realistic by saying that since a horse mounted knight travels at 60mph and a king can run at 15mph, the knight should move four squares for the king's one. While we're at it, why can a king only move diagonally?

I approach Tamiya-style games in much the same way - it is a game to resemble tank combat and not meant to be 100% accurate, since the environments and variables in such battles are not realistic in any way.

To be realistic is to first be confined to only first person view, and not God's Eye view of the field. There would be random fighter bombers, artillery, and anti tank infantrymen taking your tank out with one shot. If you had a Sherman, you'd die with one shot from anything that the Germans have. Given the number of Pershings sent over to ETO, there can not be more than one per game. And if you had a German tank, you would be prone to transmission failure, have limited range due to lack of fuel, and have half your team sidelined at the start of the game due to road march attrition. That's real life, real history.