I believe the "standard" that everyone speaks of is mostly to do with the IR Tamiya Battle System (TBU).
The ability to send a Tamiya IR signal a certain distance, width, and length of time. The ability to receive that
signal with a specific Apple, Mushroom, TBU, and communicate with the tanks multi function unit (MFU), clark board,
DBU, BARC, Taigen, and so on... From what I have learned is the tanks must, PER TAMIYA STANDARDS, show some sort of hit indicator, leds on apple, loss of speed, (battle damage), barrel flash to show when you have fired a shot, specific wight class foe light, medium, and heavy tanks, 3 hits, 5 hits, 9 hits,and down time after being destroyed. I think these are the basics. If your tank can not meet these TAMIYA STANDARDS, then you might not be able to play
with the Tamiya crowd. So if you dont IR battle, or battle at a club (with Tamiya standards), or have a IR Tamiya,, IR Heng Long, or IR Taigen you dont have to worry about it. If you want to battle with all then you will have to update all IR tanks to meet the Tamiya standards. I have a Tamiya Pershing, 3 Taigens, and 1 Heng Long. They all battle each other. My Tamiya is the standard, the Taigens have clark boards with Tamiya Battle Units and Tamiya IR emitters, they are all programed properly to meet Tamiya battle standards. My Heng Long has a BARC4 in it, a Tamiya Battle Unit, and Tamiya IR emitter, it is also programmed to meet Tamiya standards for IR play. Now some may say the Tamiyas have other standards, like better electronics, wiring, gears motors, and so on, thats an opinion. To me, my opinion, and I have only be into tanks for about 14 months, is that the Tamiya Standard is only the IR Battle System side of it.
If your tank meets the IR Battle System requirements, the who cares if your tank is plastic or Titanium, bright orange or fully detailed, you shouldnt get kicked out of a official battle event. I hope I answered a part of your question? This may start a huge debate, again. There are more seasoned Tankers out their than me, so Im sure this will get more attention. Im still a newbe and open to learning more also. I like each one of my tanks.